1. The Impact Of Carbon Pricing
We all know it is coming and we’ve spent months, even years, debating its effectiveness and whether
the Government will survive long enough to see it implemented. Well now it’s here and the only
question left is ‘how much’? Love it or loathe it, the biggest question on everyone’s lips at the moment
is about how much it will change our cost of living.
I am, of course, referring to the carbon tax and electricity pricing is the seen as the most obvious and
measureable yardstick when it comes to monitoring the impact of the price of carbon on our daily lives.
As with most things that involve a mix of Federal and State regulation, there is not a simple answer. The
price change attributable to carbon pricing will vary across the States and will vary according to your
tariff. These variances are caused by a number of factors including the type of fuel used to generate the
electricity and access to the national grid. Estimates have been developed for each of the States below.
These estimates are taken from the Clean Energy Future website (www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au).
NSW SA QLD TAS WA NT ACT VIC
8.9% 4.6% 11% 5.6% 9.1% 6.8% 14.2% 11%
In Queensland, the increase in electricity costs because of carbon pricing is estimated to be around 2.4c
per kWh in consumption. To put some perspective on it, the average price on tariff 11 (residential) is
around 23c per kWh. Given that consumption equals around half of your electricity bill (the other half is
a fixed transmission cost), the effect of carbon pricing should be just under 5% of your total bill.