Are we regulating ourselves out of viability?
Australia’s biggest manufacturing sector is the food industry believe it or not. I was listening to Kate Carnell CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council on Meet the Press this wee and she had some interesting things to say about the emission trading scheme and climate change.
She stated that viability of the food manufacturing sector is under threat from the combination of drought, the proposed emissions trading scheme and the global downturn plus a lack of strong government direction to address the problem.
The $70 billion-a-year food industry, employing 200,000 people, was Australia’s biggest manufacturing industry and it is regulated by a massive 20 government departments. Why? A co-ordinated approach overseen by the by one department comes to mind as more reasonable.
“This whole industry is based on available water and low-cost power and really, like any other agricultural products, if your water is not there – no water, no food – that’s a bit of a problem,” said Ms Carnell.
That problem became more daunting if the price of power rose as a result of the emissions trading scheme, with significant knock-on effects given 90 per cent of the inputs to the food industry came from Australian farms, Ms Carnell said
The issue she was most concerned about is the fact that imported goods are not subject to the carbon trading. This does not make sense. I am against protectionism but imports need to account for their carbon emissions so we have a levelish playing field. It will never be level because of differing wage and other conditions around the world.
Technorati Tags: Australia’s food industry, drought, emissions trading, carbon trading
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