Coalition climate policy forced big polluters to pay $15m for carbon credits in past year

Alcoa’s aluminum smelter on the Portland headland in Victoria is one site forced to purchase carbon offsets under the safeguard mechanism. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

The Coalition last year required polluting businesses to buy 419,000 carbon credits at an estimated cost of $15m using a policy that Scott Morrison now falsely describes as “Labor’s sneaky carbon tax”.

Government data released last month shows that, under the Coalition’s so-called safeguard mechanism, major polluting companies had to buy 70% more carbon credits last financial year than in 2019-20.