The Australian Aviation Associations Forum (AAAF) has warned that the country's new carbon tax will severely affect Australia's struggling general and regional aviation sectors and hit operators that provide critical services such as medical, airmail and freight, crop spraying, fire-fighting, and search and rescue.
The Australian government plans to implement a carbon tax from 1 July 2012, aimed at the country's top 500 polluters.
International aviation fuel will be exempt from the scheme but domestic operators will face an increase in aviation fuel excise.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service will be eligible for compensation as it is a not-for-profit organisation. However, other aviation operators will not be exempt.
"The inference that the aviation sector is one of 'around 500 big polluters' and is 'a key contributor to greenhouse gas emissions' is wrong and misrepresents the fact that the aviation sector is a relatively small emitter of carbon pollution - approximately 1.5% of total emissions," the AAAF said.
"It also ignores the aviation sector's significant achievements to date - mitigating environmental impacts inclusive of lowering fuel usage and carbon pollution," it added.
The AAAF warned that the government's Clean Energy Future plan will more than double excise on kerosene and gasoline used for domestic aviation.
It said that from 2012, excise on aviation kerosene will increase incrementally from 3.556 cents a litre to 10.160 cents a litre by 2014-15, while excise on avgas will rise from 3.556 cents a litre to 9.144 cents a litre in the same period.
"For a sector that cannot readily further reduce its fuel use and is already dealing with exponentially increasing costs, the imposition of a carbon tax is onerous, regressive and discriminates against aviation relative to other sectors of the economy," the AAAF said.
"It will be a very significant impost on an important sector providing critical infrastructure to Australia," it added.
The AAAF includes aviation groups representing Australia's aerial agricultural operators, recreational pilots, engineers and regional airlines.
Meanwhile, the Aerial Agricultural Association of Australia (AAAA) has written to the federal government calling for aircraft used for agricultural, firebombing [dropping water on wildfires] and oil spill clear-ups to be exempt from the carbon tax.
"Agriculture is exempt but agricultural aircraft are not and firebombing actually reduces carbon emissions. How can a government make such a policy miscue," AAAA chief executive Phil Hurst said, adding that these aviation sectors are unable to make further changes to reduce emissions.
"A lot of policy goes wrong because this government does not know or understand the industry," Hurst said.
Source: Flight International
