The Federal Government's emissions trading scheme will open up a bucket load of complications and anomalies, leaving Australian families and industry exposed to higher taxes that most of the rest of the world will not pay, according to Nationals Leader Warren Truss.
Mr Truss said the complexity of the proposed ETS would make it a nightmare beyond any economic reform seen in this country.
"A political leader of the past once had trouble trying to explain how the different components of a birthday cake were going to be taxed," Mr Truss said.
"The Rudd Government has unveiled a baker’s shop full of birthday cakes."
The Government may argue that agriculture is "exempt" from an ETS until at least 2015, but Mr Truss said this failed to take into account the increased cost of inputs and energy that will be used in producing Australia's food and fibre.
And while New Zealand has decided to exempt food processing from its ETS, the Australian Government's scheme does not provide the same exemption for Australian processors.
Mr Truss said this means energy intensive industries like dairy processing would be placed at a severe disadvantage.
"This means that we will see a flood of New Zealand dairy products onto the Australia market and our producers will lose the international markets they have fought long and hard to enter," he said.
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