‘Carbon taxes

By Emma Sun
JULIA Gillard’s carbon tax will send many struggling businesses overseas meaning job cuts in Australian, an award winning Dandenong manufacturer has said.
Managing director of Australian Rollforming Henry Wolfkamp told visiting Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science Sophie Mirabella that the company was already struggling.
He told Mrs Mirabella and Senator Mitch Fifield that it was already difficult to cope with margin decreases and that the company would be hit hard by the extra tax. “We can not afford to increase our price to reclaim the tax so all it can do for us is erode our margin, and our margin is already very slim,” Mr Wolfkamp said.
The carbon tax is set to cost businesses an extra $23 per tonne for pollution emitted.
Mr Wolfkamp said the competitive overseas market was causing problems for local manufacturers and is driving many overseas, where extra taxes don’t apply.
He said that while finished products come from China at about $1600 a tonne, the company spends the same amount just on steel and manufacturing so with a small margin and the added tax, the company can’t compete on price.
Mr Wolfkamp fears the carbon tax will drive the company overseas where such costs don’t apply and hence many jobs will be lost.
“Is that where we want to go? I don’t want to go there,” he said.
“Then it’s a matter of survival if we don’t start cutting jobs,” he said.
However, Issacs MP Mark Dreyfus said 40 per cent of the carbon price revenue will go towards helping businesses and supporting jobs.
He said the Jobs and Competitiveness Program will provide $9.2 billion of assistance to safeguard jobs in industries which face international competition and produce a lot of pollution.
Mrs Mirabella has vowed to fight the carbon tax and support local businesses.
“My concern is that a carbon tax is going to affect so many local businesses that are already operating on a very narrow profit margin and push them off the edge and push them off shore,” Mrs Mirabella said.