Australia managed to pass a national carbon pricing scheme into legislation in November 2011, which has come into effect from July 2012. The scheme includes elements of a CO2-equivalent tax as a short prelude to emission trading. Several fundamental problems remain unaddressed, including: the continuing rise of emissions, the scale of growth and economic activity, the promotion of emission trading, subsidies to polluters, the hidden promotion of banking and finance sectors. The new policy appears primarily targeted at job creation and business as usual. We argue that the prospects for any meaningful reduction in emission levels are extremely unlikely. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.