Call to probe carbon plan statements

By Peter Smith in Sydney
Published: June 16 2009 03:00

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has been asked to investigate alleged "misleading and deceptive conduct" by a group of companies over public statements on the impact of a proposed carbon pollution reduction scheme.
The call has been made by the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Australian Climate Justice Program, which have named six companies in their complaint to the watchdog.
The list comprises Rio Tinto and Xstrata, the miners, Woodside and Caltex, the petroleum groups, as well as Boral, the building products group, and Bluescope Steel.
The competition commission said it had received a letter from the federation and was considering its contents before deciding if it would take action.
A number of Australian companies have been vocal in their criticism of the proposed CPRS legislation, complaining about likely job losses, rising costs and disparities with companies in other jurisdictions which are not subject to similar laws.
There have also been claims that energy and mining projects would be less competitive if Australia introduced laws ahead of other nations.
The federation's complaint sets out 14 instances where company statements are alleged to be "exaggerated and contradictory" when compared with disclosures made to shareholders and independent analysis.
Don Henry, executive director of the federation, said he wanted the competition commission to examine whether there had been a breach of Australia's Trade Practices Act.
"Some of Australia's biggest corporate polluters appear to be presenting the worst case to government and the public in an effort to gain excessive free permits while presenting the best case to investors in order to keep their share prices up," said Mr Henry.
"We are asking the ACCC to investigate whether our politicians, policymakers and the public have been deceived," he said.
RiskMetrics, the corporate governance adviser, estimates that the value of free permits that Canberra has agreed to make to the country's six heaviest polluting industries will reach A$12.6bn (US$10bn) in the first five years after the legislation is introduced.
The complaint from the conservation group comes as Australia's Labor government prepares to introduce its legislation to the country's upper house, the Senate, next week.
The introduction of the scheme has already been delayed and the government faces an uphill battle to get the bills passed into law.
Woodside said the federation's allegations had "no substance".
It added: "The ACF makes specific allegations against Woodside of no apparent disclosure, yet overlooks a series of relevant disclosures made to the Australian Securities Exchange over many months."
Rio said it had made three significant submissions to the government on the issue but added that it would be inappropriate to make a statement to its shareholders until the legislation had been passed into law.
The Anglo-Australian miner said that the chances of the legislation being passed in its current form appeared remote.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009