Australia’s introduction of a carbon tax on its most polluting companies was met with fierce resistance from industry, as Qantas Airways said it would be forced to raise airfares and Anglo American said coal mining jobs could be cut. Australia said companies would have to pay A$23 (US$25) for every tonne of carbon dioxide they emitted. The carbon pricing plan, announced by Julia Gillard, the prime minister, on Sunday puts Australia on track to have the biggest emissions trading system outside Europe and could provide added momentum to the development of a global carbon market…Seamus French, head of Anglo American’s metallurgical coal business, said the plan was an act of “political opportunism”…Qantas said there would be “some effect on passengers through higher domestic fares” as a result of the tax.