Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—I thank honourable members for their contributions. A national high-quality greenhouse and energy dataset is a foundation requirement for establishing a successful emissions trading system and informing all Australian governments in their decisions. The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Bill 2007 will establish Australia’s first nationwide mandatory system for collecting high-quality greenhouse and energy data from industry. This bill will allow for a more comprehensive and accurate picture of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions and energy use than ever before.

One of the bill’s strengths is its provisions to reduce the number of reports that businesses are required to submit under the current patchwork of programs across jurisdictions. In some cases, the number of reports will reduce from eight down to one. We will consult widely with industry and state and territory governments in coming months to ensure that government reporting requirements are streamlined as soon as practicable.

Because of the urgent need for data to underpin the introduction of the Australian emissions trading system, which the government intends to implement by 2011, discussions on streamlining will not delay the collection of data under this system. The bill will see the national greenhouse and energy reporting system up and running by 1 July 2008. I thank the participants in the debate and commend the bill to the House.

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