We don't have a carbon tax. Paul Howes. We don't have a workers' union either.

Australia doesn't have a carbon tax: AWU

 

Paul Howes, national secretary of the Australian Workers' Union, insists the carbon price isn't a tax.

Union boss Paul Howes says Australia does not have a carbon tax - it has a fixed price on carbon.

The national secretary of the Australian Workers' Union (AWU) insists Prime Minister Julia Gillard did not break her 2010 election promise that there would be no carbon tax under her government.

"I don't think it's a carbon tax - it's a fixed price," Mr Howes told ABC radio on Monday.

"Labor has always said that it will put a price on carbon and that's what Labor did.

"This nonsense debate, which has distracted the Australian people for two years about what the prime minister did and didn't say, is a distraction."

Mr Howes, who is due to address the AWU's national conference in Queensland later on Monday, warned there would be big public sector job cuts should the coalition win the next federal election.

"We know what conservatives will do if they gain control of the federal government because we've seen what they've done here in Queensland with the state government," he said.

Ms Gillard will address the AWU national conference at 8pm (AEDT) on Monday.