The Russian oligarch says the tax will have ‘a significant long-term impact’ on its Queensland Alumina joint venture project with Rio Tinto, claiming that since the introduction of the tax and in addition to rising costs generally, there have been around 200 job losses.
He said that the carbon tax was designed to ‘shift facilities, such as QAL, to a higher cost energy source, such as gas, where there is no long-term certainty on supply’. This, Deripaska believes, could lead to local processing and jobs moving overseas.
Source: The Australian.