Isra-Mart srl : Don't go alone on carbon tax: Rio Tinto

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MINING giant Rio Tinto has added its weight to calls for Julia Gillard to reassure big polluting industries that her carbon tax plans will not damage Australia's international competitiveness, warning it is unwise to act before China and the US.

In an exclusive interview with The Weekend Australian, Rio Tinto chairman Jan du Plessis urged the Gillard Government to rethink its carbon pricing policy and timing, saying it threatened the Australian economy when other leading economies appeared to be stalling on climate change action.

"The question is, how and when does Australia move in the light of the disappointment of the Copenhagen conference and in light of the fact there are very few signs the big gorillas - the US and China - really are going to be moving," the London-based Mr du Plessis said in Sydney.

Rio, which earned about 70 per cent of its 2010 profit from Australia, is the world's third-biggest miner and is a leading supplier of coal to Asia.

Mr du Plessis has spoken out as criticism grows about the Government's interim carbon tax, which is due to begin from July next year.

This week, BHP Billiton chief executive Marius Kloppers warned the Prime Minister that Australia's go-it-alone approach would be a "dead weight" on heavy polluting industries, and the nation should not penalise its "trade-exposed industries" by moving ahead of its international competitors.

As the minority Labor government continues to struggle with the task of crafting a carbon pricing package that can secure the vital parliamentary support of crossbench MPs and the Greens, Tony Abbott has been encroaching into Labor's heartland and drumming up opposition to the tax in blue-collar workplaces.

The Government now also appears to have lost any slim chance of West Australian Nationals MP Tony Crook supporting its carbon plans. Mr Crook, who sits as an Independent, has revealed he is considering formally joining the Coalition after the Federal Budget, which would lock him into opposing the carbon tax.

Mr du Plessis said his concerns were from an Australian business perspective, rather than a mining one, and centred around how an initial price would be determined and the impact on businesses that have global competitors.