Carbon tax negativity "a beat-up"

Speculation about the negative effects of the carbon tax was "a beat-up" and was causing a lot of unnecessary fear, according to ag consultant Steve Hossen. He believes the effects of the carbon tax on farming will be no worse than seasonal variations. "Agricultural products go through phases of supply and demand and it ebbs and flows. When there is good demand for your product, the price will rise, and when it is over supplied, prices will be weak and will affect the farming sector. The likely impact on costs and potential inflation have been detailed by the Productivity Commission and are not as high as they're being made out to be." Mr Hossen told Farming Weekly that Australia's carbon tax was similar to New Zealand's emissions trading scheme (ETS) introduced in 2009 with agriculture exempt until 2015, where it had made little impact."The New Zealand farming magazines are full of the normal stuff, sales, technology and farm-based chit chat. I suspect that if you ask a 100 farmers in New Zealand what they know about the carbon tax and what damage it has done, they would say 'I don't know'."