Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Hansard source

Briefly, the opposition are quite happy to facilitate the passing of this bill tonight through the House of Representatives. We are quite prepared to deal with the consideration in detail stage this evening, and we are quite prepared to have any votes that might be necessary tonight. We, the government and, I think, members of the community share the view that the renewable energy targets legislation should be dealt with one way or the other as quickly as possible to give people in the community certainty. It has already been delayed long enough, from the opposition’s point of view. As you know, we had not insisted that the ETS legislation and the RET legislation be together—we had been quite happy for them to be decoupled—and this legislation could have been passed two months ago. There are many people in the community who are waiting to see what the parliament does with this bill. So the Leader of the House should know that the opposition are quite prepared to have this bill passed and dealt with this evening. We have not asked our members to cut back their important contributions unless they feel that they are capable of doing so and happy to do so. If they cooperate, that will make it easier for us to deal with this this evening. Therefore, the time from 12 till two tomorrow may or may not be necessary; we might well be able to wrap this issue up this afternoon or this evening and then get it into the Senate so that the Senate can deal with it with all their wisdom, energy and experience as they see fit over the course of the next three days.

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