Legal experts say it will be up to individual councils to decide how they respond to the abolition of the carbon price.

Many residents will expect their local government to pass on the saving from the repeals in the form of reduced their rates, refunds or discounts.

But an assessment on the Implications of Carbon Price Repeal for Local Government commissioned by the Australian Local Government Association, says it appears that councils cannot be forced to do anything.

The document is available in PDF form, here. 

“At present, there are no specific legal obligations on, or requirements of, councils in relation to such decisions,” the paper from law firm Norton Rose Fullbright said.

It says that because rates for 2014-2015 “will already have been set, councils may need to reflect lower costs arising from the CPM repeal into their rate setting process for the next financial year”.

A major question from the local government sector after the carbon tax repeal was what would happen to those governments that own or operate landfills, which became “Liable Entities” for repayment under the discarded law.

The big carbon price of landfill (which produces large amounts of methane from rotting food) meant councils and shires were forced to increase fees, dumping charges and set up eco-friendly ways of offsetting negative effects such as by increasing recycling.

But the legal firms says local governments can decide for themselves which landfill compliance requirements and extra fees they will keep in place, while “satisfying liability, pricing implications, and refund obligations and future abatement obligations and opportunities”.

“The only emissions that now attract a liability are those that occurred in the [2013-2014] compliance year,” the Norton Rose Fullbright paper said.

“Consequently, landfills now hold funds for which they have no associated payment obligation.”

The South Australian Local Government Association (LGA) says is it telling councils to “to check that their suppliers reduce bills appropriately in line with the repeal of the carbon price” and advised “that the Australian Consumer and Competition Council (ACCC) has existing and new powers to investigate suppliers who do not do the right thing”.

Brisbane City Council has announced that residents will get “a one-off carbon tax refund on their rates to return the estimated cost of the scrapped carbon tax from Council’s 2014/15 Budget as well as refunds from previous years related to landfill carbon emissions costs”.

Local governments around the country are expected to canvas internally and externally for views on what to do with existing carbon-cutting programs and related funds.