Federated Farmers says the Australian government's carbon tax package will put further pressure on the New Zealand Government to leave agriculture out of its emissions trading scheme.
The Australian government announced on Sunday it plans a carbon tax on the country's 500 biggest polluters from 1 July 2012 and to move to a full emissions trading scheme from 2015.
Agricultural emissions will not be carbon taxed and neither will fuel used on farms.
Australian farmers will also be able to tap into new funds for tree planting and carbon farming.
As it stands, New Zealand's emissions trading scheme is set to include agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from 2015.
The ETS is under review and Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills thinks the Australian approach will add weight to the argument that New Zealand should not put itself out on a limb from the rest of the world, by taxing livestock emissions.
New Zealand's Climate Change Minister Nick Smith says the two schemes have more common points than differences in the approach they're taking.
He says the New Zealand scheme, for example, provides substantial credits for those foresters who plant trees for the carbon emissions that's absorbed by those.
Dr Smith says that's provided indirectly in the Australian scheme through an incentive model that means there's little difference in practice.
