Firstly, the immediate impact of a carbon tax will be felt by charitable organizations. The Salvation Army, one of Australia’s largest charitable organizations, has revealed that a carbon tax will cost them an additional $3.5 million dollars and that this could impact on the services they provide to about 300,000 people a year of which includes emergency accommodation and drug and alcohol counseling. Secondly, to make matters even worse for charitable organisations and ordinary Australians, electricity companies are refusing to tell struggling families and businesses exactly how much the carbon tax will add to their power bills . . . The Australian federal government estimates electricity prices will increase by up to 10 per cent when the tax kicks in on July 1, 2012, however there have been reports that electricity prices will in fact increase by up to 20% and more.