The clincher? Of all the money forked out for the tax, large amounts will go to compensating big business for continuing to do what they have always done
You are right, that's the part that makes me mad. Gillard should have just told them: "Suck it up, princess." But of course they will still jack up their prices because people expect that to happen with the carbon tax....
And that's not just with carbon tax. Licenses are still being handed out to build new coal and gas plants. We have enough of those. Just tell them: if you want to sell electricity, build wind, solar, hydro, whatever. They will complain and talk about taking their business elsewhere, yada yada yada, blah blah blah. In the end, they have shareholder to please and money to make and they'll do it.