According to Superpower Institute Director and economist Professor Ross Garnaut, Australia has made some “bad choices” over the last decade, as real wages are comparatively lower than a decade ago.
On Wednesday at the National Press Club, Mr. Garnaut and Superpower Institute Chair and former ACCC chair Professor Rod Sims urged for the revival of carbon pricing, arguing that it could generate as much as $100 billion annually.
“We don’t pretend that everyone will put up their hands and say go as fast as you can; certainly the 105 companies that will be paying that levy within Australia won’t think it’s a great idea,” Mr. Garnaut said in the interview with Sky News Australia.
“But there’s 27 million Australians who will do very well out of it—a lower cost of living, more jobs, higher real wages.“
“In the end, you got to make some choices; we’ve made some bad choices in the last 10 years.
“Since 2013, we’ve had just about the worst growth in output per person in the developed world; in the two decades before that, we had nearly the best, so it was quite a coming down.“
“Real wages are lower now than 10 years ago—that’s never happened in Australia before.“
“We’ve got to make choices, and, in the end, yes, it will be impossible to impose a levy because the polluters won’t like it, but it’s more impossible to look 27 million Australians in the face and say you’re going to have another two decades of stagnant living standards like the last decade.”
- Published By Team Australia News
