FED:Go past the scaremongering, says Swan

AAP General News (Australia)
04-20-2011
FED:Go past the scaremongering, says Swan

CANBERRA, April 20 AAP - Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has admitted the government will
find it much easier to sell its carbon tax once it unveils more detail of the design and
associated compensation.

Mr Swan says the debate is currently being bogged down by "hysterical scaremongering"

by big business but he believes there is still a community will to tackle climate change.

"When we get all of the detail out there for people to see it will be far easier to
engage in that discussion in a way which is free of so much of the hysterical scaremongering
that is coming from vested interests in our community who don't really care about meeting
this long-term challenge," the treasurer told the Queensland Media Club on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard wrote to the Business Council of Australia (BCA) this
week to ask if it still believed a market mechanism was the best way to reduce the country's
greenhouse gas emissions.

The move came after the council queried the government's pledge to devote more than
half of the carbon tax revenue to assist households.

Mr Swan said on Wednesday he was "slightly surprised" the BCA didn't seem to be as
big a supporter of pricing carbon now as in the past.

"It's a tough battle," he said of the struggle to introduce an emissions trading scheme.

"But one we've got to do because it's a key reform that goes to the core of not only
our productivity but the extent to which we can be competitive in the 21st century."

AAP jcd/dep

KEYWORD: CLIMATE SWAN

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