According to the industry body, the strategy, which was announced on Monday, will “fuel greater economic uncertainty and exacerbate weak business and consumer confidence for the foreseeable future”.

PIAA chief executive Bill Healey said printers were already facing a challenging time and the tax will only aggravate their problems.

“The industry already operates under reduced margins,” he said.

“The industry will now face rising energy costs, raw material costs and possibly freight and transport costs. This will be a major disincentive for investment.”

Healey added that although the printing industry was not a top emitter of greenhouse gases, the indirect impact of the tax would be significant and drawn out, “affecting profitability and future viability”.

Hagop Tchamkertenian, PIAA national manager for policy and government affairs, said the government’s proposed assistance measures were unlikely to help printers.

“The proposed Clean Technology Investment Program, designed to assist manufacturers modernise their equipment and upgrade to less polluting equipment and cleaner technologies, is likely to be a competitive-based grants program,” he said.

“An inherent disincentive is the requirement that for every dollar contributed by the government, printing businesses need to contribute three dollars.

“There is also the requirement that the business must have facilities that use more than 300 megawatt hours of electricity or five terajoules of natural gas a year.”

Tchamkertenian said the PIAA’s initial assessment showed that less than 20% of printing industry businesses may be eligible for funding.

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