Mark Butler rejects new ‘carbon tax’ claims on 3AW Mornings

Neil Mitchell spoke with shadow environment minister Mark Butler on Wednesday to try and clear up claims the opposition wants to bring back a carbon tax.

And it took the best part of 11 minutes for the 3AW Mornings host to get an answer.

If elected, Labor wants to cut carbon emissions by 50 per cent more than what Coalition has promised, in a bid to increase renewable energy and introduce a broad-based emissions trading scheme.

They also plan to reduce the exhaust emissions of cars.

But will that come at a cost?

‘The cap on pollution levels will not have a direct carbon price,’ Mr Butler said on 3AW Mornings.

‘There’s no carbon price imposed on those companies.

‘I’ve described very clearly what our policy is … we’ve very deliberately designed this policy to get pollution levels back under control … our pollution levels are going up.’

Neil Mitchell: ‘Yes, but can you just say the words ‘there will be no price rise’ under this scheme?’

Mark Butler: ‘Well there is no carbon price under this scheme, so of course there’ll be no price rises, there’s no price on carbon.’

Click PLAY to hear Mark Butler’s exchange with Neil Mitchell