After reports that Australia’s carbon tax is hurting businesses across the country, state government data show that the tax is hitting hospital bottom lines in Victoria.
The Herald Sun reports that Victoria hospitals paid an extra $6.7AUD million in energy costs in just six months because of the carbon tax. Carbon tax payments ranged from 8 percent of hospitals’ total energy costs to 22 percent.
“This is an additional cost that is slugged on top for hospitals and health services,” said Victoria Health Minister David Davis, who wrote to the national government asking for compensation to offset the higher energy bills. The government agreed to provide additional funding in December 2011 — before the carbon tax was introduced. The funding doesn’t cover the additional costs.
The state government got complete billing data from 30 of 91 Victorian hospitals, and the audit looked at hospital billing records, past energy usage and average carbon prices.
The remaining estimates — $5.85AUD million, 87 percent of carbon tax costs — were based on billing data from Hospital Energy Buying Group, an energy purchasing company.
However, Australian federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek’s spokesman said that federal funding to hospitals would increase $20 billion over the next decade, and more than cover carbon costs.
“Indexation . . . will see federal hospital funding increase by 6.5 per cent this financial year, going up each year to more than 10 per cent indexation in 2015-16,” he said, adding that the federal government estimated that the carbon tax would only comprise 0.3 percent of hospital costs.
The country’s carbon tax started July 1 of last year at a rate of $23AUD per ton and will become a full-blown cap-and-trade scheme in three years as well as be integrated with the European cap-and-trade system.
The carbon tax has been hitting businesses hard across the country. News Limited Network reported the carbon tax was contributing to a record number of businesses facing insolvency — 10,632 for the 12 months to December 31 2012.
Furthermore, it was reported that the carbon tax will add $115AUD million in costs to the country’s tourism industry.
“The additional costs imposed on hotels from the carbon tax are coming straight off the bottom line,” said Rodger Powell, Tourism Accommodation Australia managing director.
The Herald Sun reported last year that the Victorian Department of Health found that the carbon tax would add $13.4AUD million in costs to the public health system in the first year.
“This new data is line [sic] with that modelling, which found that over the next decade the total cost to the health system would be $170 million,” reports the Herald Sun.
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