Survey says carbon tax will move industry offshore
5th September, 2012
“The majority of residents in the Federal Electorate of Wide Bay still do not understand how the carbon tax will work and they have deep concerns about its potential impact on Australian industry. Federal Member for Wide Bay, Warren Truss, said today that the results from Wide Bay’s Community Survey 2012 indicated that the carbon tax will fail to achieve its objectives.
“More than 4100 Wide Bay residents responded to the survey, the results of which have been released today,” Mr Truss said.
“79% of survey respondents said that they believed the carbon tax will lead to Australian industries relocating to countries that do not have an emissions tax, with 13% saying that it would not and 8% were unsure.
49% of respondents said they do not understand how the carbon tax works, while 17% were unsure.
“The carbon tax is designed to reduce electricity usage but only 20% of people who responded to the survey believed that the carbon tax would lead to a reduction in their electricity use,” Mr Truss said.
“In addition, 77% of survey respondents said that they were not willing to pay anything extra to use renewable energy in their homes. 13% said that they were willing to pay 20 per cent more to use renewable energy, 2% said 50 per cent more and 8% said whatever it costs.”
“The survey respondents were divided on the implementation of the carbon tax, with 37% saying it is too high, 3% saying it is too low, 14% saying it is about right. 43% of those replying to the survey said the carbon tax should be delayed until other countries have similar schemes and 59% said that it should be abolished entirely.”
Mr Truss said the survey also revealed that only 9% of respondents believe that climate change is caused by humans, 49% felt that climate change is a part of a natural environmental cycle made worse by humans, and 42% said climate change is just part of a natural environmental cycle.
“41% of those who responded to the survey said they had installed solar panels and/or a solar hot water system.
“The survey found that 36% of respondents supported nuclear energy as a means to reduce carbon emissions while 35% supported uranium mining. Support for nuclear power was much stronger on the Sunshine Coast than in other parts of the electorate with 51% saying yes.”
While 65% of survey respondents support the opening up of new coal mining areas in Queensland, only 55% supported the Colton coal mine near Maryborough. However, support for the Colton coal mine was much stronger in its local Maryborough district with 63% of respondents supporting the mine.
Only 27% of respondents supported the extraction of coal seam gas in Queensland.
In relation to the management of the Queensland’s water resources, only 18% of respondents supported a water grid to supply water from our region to Brisbane. 25% supported aquifer storage and recovery, while 38% supported more dams.
The use of recycled treated sewerage for industrial purposes was supported by 66%, but only 14% favoured the use of recycled sewerage for human consumption.
The survey found 52% support for water savings schemes, 34% for piping water from the tropics, 18% for desalination, 13% for pumping water from Fraser Island as ways to increase water resources.
41% supported fluoridation of the water, with support in the Sunshine Coast part of the electorate at 53%.
Support for daylight saving remains very low in Wide Bay, with just 33% wanting daylight saving introduced to Queensland (62% against) In Noosa there was 49% support (46% against) but only 16% want it in Murgon, 22% in Gympie and 29% in the Maryborough area.
Mr Truss thanked everyone who participated in the survey.
“The views expressed in the survey help me to better understand local opinions on issues and will help to inform my contributions to debate in the Federal Parliament,” Mr Truss said.
