Laughing at Tony Abbott's exaggerations

Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s  media release of 23 March 2012:

In exactly 100 days, the world’s biggest carbon tax will commence.

Abbott again on 8 July 2012:

And at the moment this is the world's biggest carbon tax at the worst possible time.

This was KieraGorden’s response in 2013:

Taxing Energy Use: A Graphical Analysis, 28 January 2013: Executive Summary excerpt:

Based on statutory rates in effect on 1 April 2012, overall effective tax rates on energy (Figure 1) range from EUR 0.18 per GJ in Mexico (not taking into account the variable rate component of its fuel excise tax, which has been negative in recent years) to EUR 6.58 per GJ in Luxembourg, with a simple average for all OECD countries of EUR 3.28 per GJ and a weighted average of EUR 1.77 per GJ. Meanwhile, effective tax rates on carbon range from EUR 2.80 per tonne ofCO2 in Mexico to EUR 107.28 per tonne of CO2 in Switzerland, with a simple average for all OECD countries of EUR 52.04 per tonne of CO2 and a weighted average of EUR 27.12 per tonne of CO2.

The highest overall effective tax rates tend to be in European countries, where energy-tax policy is significantly shaped by the 2003 European Union Energy Taxation Directive, which sets minimum tax rates for a variety of energy commodities. Many of the countries with the highest effective tax rates on carbon are countries with explicit carbon taxes (e.g. Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland). Explicit carbon taxes generally exist alongside other taxes on energy products, which are sometimes based on the energy content of different fuels. These countries tend to tax a broad range of energy products and to have more consistency in rates across different fuels and uses, particularly with respect to heating and process use.

Many Central European and Asian OECD member countries (e.g. the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Japan, Korea, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Turkey) tend to have lower effective tax rates on carbon than the countries mentioned above. The lowest effective tax rates on carbon are found in Australia, New Zealand and the Americas (Chile, Canada, Mexico and the United States). These last countries typically only tax fuels used in transport and generally do so at lower rates than the OECD average (an exception being at the provincial level in Canada. [my bolding]

International Energy Agency Energy Prices And Taxes Quarterly Statistics Fourth Quarter 2012:

Real Energy Prices for Households (total energy) in OECD countries, Third Quarter 2012

United Kingdom 136.4

New Zealand 127.1

Germany 126.7

United States 124.6

Japan 115.1

Australia 110.9

Canada 110.6

Real Energy Prices for Households and Industry (total energy) in OECD countries, Third Quarter 2012

United Kingdom 129.1

Germany 128.5

Japan 119.6

New Zealand 118.9

United States 117.4

Australia 117.1

Canada 104.4

Note: The "Real" price index is computed from prices in national currencies and divided by the country specific

 producer price index for the industrial sector and by the consumer price index for the household sector.

** Carbon Pricing came into effect in Australia in the Third Quarter 2012