A carbon tax police force with wide-ranging powers will be a further drain on taxpayers if the carbon tax were enacted, according to Federal Member for Dawson, George Christensen.

The fine details for the carbon tax legislation were released yesterday, uncovering expensive administration costs and the new police state for businesses.

“The taxpayers will now have to pay more for everything under this toxic tax, pay for Labor to advertise it, pay for the administration and then pay for Labor’s carbon tax cops,” Mr Christensen said. “There is a lot of financial pain for very, very little gain and what we get as a result is a bunch of carbon police with extreme powers running around interfering with businesses who are trying to get on with their job.”

“This is further proof that Labor’s respose to everything is more tax, more bureaucracy and more waste.”

The exposure draft of the 14-bill package, released yesterday, outlines wide-ranging powers for a Clean Energy Regulator, which will give offers the power to enter companies, force individuals to give self-incriminating evidence and copy sensitive records.

The government plans to introduce the package to parliament in September with the hope of passing it by November.

“Carbon cops will have the power to obtain warrants to search premises of companies and examine any activity on site and copy documents,” Mr Christensen said. “The business community and general public should be very concerned about legislating for that level invasion and also the cost involved in setting it up and enforcing it.”