How could Australia’s carbon tax change affect business?

Australian PM Julia Gillard set to introduce major reforms to emissions-heavy companies in an attempt to fight climate change and remodel business strategies

On the other side of the world, an ambitious economic and environmental strategy is being debated – on the streets, in the newspapers and in government. The roll-out of this strategy – and its potential impact on some of the world’s biggest economies – could change the relationship of business success and climate change.

This week Australian Prime Minister announced a new plan for carbon tax on the country’s biggest polluters. After years of talk but little action, Julia Gillard now presents a plan which aims to create a sustainable financial model that would use carbon tax to support the costs of domestic and social services.

Gillard’s reform would not simply be ‘punishing’ pollutant companies. It makes use of an economic model which MBAs and advisors adherent to a more antiquated, pre-crash system that prioritises only upward exponential growth, will be unfamiliar with.

However, the world is not what it was in the 1980s and 1990s. We know more now about the potential damage that unstoppable and unchecked profit can cause. Gillard wants to use the carbon taxes of the great guzzlers to reduce the domestic taxes of the country’s people. And this turn towards finding a more sustainable way of using financial power is seeing business strategy specialists and recruitment companies follow suit.

MBA & Company is one such company, which provides business experts and MBAs to the wider working world, understanding that it’s not just businesses that need strategic management – but civil services, commercial enterprise and more.

It seems that Gillard is really trying to find a new way for business, society and environment to support, rather than antagonise, each other.

The reform, with widespread support in the Greens and Independents camp, but the source of considerable friction amongst certain voters and Conservatives, is Gillard’s third attempt at reversing the country’s terrible pollution record.

Australia is the rich world’s most prolific carbon-guzzler, in some places still reliant on coal stations for electricity. But the hope is that this scheme will be an effective way of both reducing this poor environmental record and in turn generating up to Aus $15 billion worth of tax cuts for Australian households.