SYDNEY (AFP) ? Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is set to reveal the details of a carbon tax designed to help fight climate change and billed as one of the nation's biggest economic reforms for decades.
Labor leader Gillard plans to tax Australia's top 500 polluters for their carbon dioxide emissions as a means of reducing pollution, changing energy use and building investment in clean sources of energy.
"No longer will the nation's biggest polluters be able to pollute our atmosphere for free," Gillard told a Labor Party conference on Saturday.
"From July 1 next year, the freedom to pollute our skies will cease. Two decades of denial and delay will come to an end. Polluters will have to pay."
Reports have suggested that carbon dioxide emissions will initially be taxed at Aus$23 ($24.70) per tonne, on a par with the European Union's emissions trading scheme.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported the Australian price will be designed to increase by about three to four percent every year before shifting to an emissions trading scheme, with a floating price, by 2015.
Gillard will release details of the policy, expected to deliver revenue of Aus$10-12 billion per year, after 0215 GMT and give a rare televised address to the nation to sell the package later on Sunday evening.
The prime minister has the numbers in parliament to pass the legislation but her popularity has been sinking in opinion polls since she announced plans for the tax earlier this year.
The issue of a carbon tax is hotly debated in Australia, among the world's worst per capita polluters due to its reliance on coal-fired power and mining exports, with thousands attending rallies for and against the tax in recent weeks.
The conservative opposition has led the attack on the tax, saying it will hurt industry and send jobs offshore as well as increase the cost of living for ordinary Australians.
Gillard has attempted the sweeten the deal for voters in recent days, promising that Australians will be compensated for the cost through government family payments, pension boosts and income tax cuts.
Petrol has also been exempted from the levy to shield consumers.
"Most people will find that when all is said and done, they are not a cent behind, and many will come out ahead," said Gillard.
But major mining companies such as BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata are expected to be hit by the tax, liable for a combined Aus$380 million under a conservative price of Aus$20 a tonne, according to modelling by the Australian Financial Review.
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