Lower income households will be protected from increased costs from the emissions trading scheme, the federal government says

AAP - The government released its white paper on Monday with a target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by between five and 15 per cent by 2020.

The cost of electricity, gas, petrol and a range of other goods and services will
increase when the scheme is expected to start in 2010.
However, Climate Change Minister Penny Wong is adamant low- to middle-income
families will be buffeted from any rises.
Visiting the Westbury family's home in the Sydney suburb of Bronte on Tuesday, she
said the government's $9.9 billion compensation package would protect consumers.
"For households, they will still see increased energy prices, we've been upfront
about that," Senator Wong told reporters.
"But what we also know is that we'll be providing them with assistance to enable
them to fully meet the expected overall increase and the cost of the scheme if they
are low-income households.
"We'll also be making substantial assistance to middle-income Australia."
Sydney mother-of-two Erin Westbury who, with her husband, has a dual income of
$60,000, said the scheme would make it easier for the family to be more
environmentally responsible.
"If I want to buy eco-friendly stuff I pay more, and if it means I'm going to pay
less for the same products, then that makes sense," she told reporters on Tuesday.
"It is really hard for people on low incomes to pay more for the privilege of buying
eco-friendly goods, so if those things are going to get cheaper for me, that will
work for me.
"I'm not so concerned about whether it's going to cost me more at the end of the day
as to whether this scheme's going to work ... and I feel convinced that this is a
good thing to try."
The government estimates about 89 per cent of low-income households, including
pensioners, seniors, carers and people with a disability, will receive help
equivalent to 120 per cent or more of their cost of living increase.
It says about 60 per cent of middle-income households will also receive sufficient
help to meet the overall expected cost of living increase.
Motorists will be protected from higher fuel costs through cent for cent reductions
in fuel tax for the first three years of the scheme from 2010.
Senator Wong said the scheme also offered industry an incentive to go green.
"What this scheme will do is ensure that the costs of climate change are actually
reflected in the prices we see, and in the decisions that businesses make in terms
of how they produce and what they produce," she said.
"Those things that cause more climate change will cost more, those things which
contribute less to climate change will cost less.
"That's the way you get the economic incentive to make the changes we need to our
economy."