We didn’t need a carbon tax then, and we don’t need it now.
Truely regressive policy, which is simply the hand of government pushing us (at our expense) in a certain direction, rather than the technology selling itself because it works as well or better than old polluting technologies, at a comparable or lower cost.
If governments are to get involved, get them to assist industry to improve the breed of renewable technologies, so they can be competitive, sooner.