Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Petrie for her question. Today the government has announced the appointment of six people of particularly pertinent expertise who will form the Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee. This committee has the task of assessing the proposed methods for developing and selling carbon credits. It is the first step in the implementation of the government’s Carbon Farming Initiative. When the Carbon Farming Initiative is up and running it will enable farmers, foresters and landholders to receive offset credits for actions that reduce or store carbon pollution. These credits can be sold and thus provide opportunities to generate income. This is an initiative that is good for rural and regional Australia.

The Carbon Farming Initiative will cover a wide range of practices in the land and agricultural sector. It has the capacity and the potential to provide significant benefits. Farmers and landholders can use the income stream that is generated from their carbon abatement to reinvest in their businesses, their farms and their communities. Activities such as reforestation, capturing emissions from existing landfills, better livestock management, improved soil practices and savannah fire management are just some of the many methods that may generate carbon credits.

It is encouraging to see that businesses in the carbon markets are already getting ready for this initiative. Only recently, a company known as Carbon Conscious has undertaken to trade 10,000 of these credits. It has the potential to be quite a significant market and one of significant benefit to the rural sector of the economy.

The role of the committee, the members of which have been announced today, will be to ensure that the carbon credits that are generated under the Carbon Farming Initiative will have market integrity and will lead to sound environmental outcomes. Stakeholders will be engaged on the detail of the Carbon Farming Initiative and formal public consultation will take place during this year and early next year.

This is one very tangible and constructive way for members of the House, particularly those who are representing rural and regional communities, to engage with the government’s action to deal with the challenge of climate change. I encourage those members of the House, particularly those representing rural and regional communities, to do so. Of course, members of the House such as the member for New England and the member for Lyne have already been engaged in some conversation with the government about this issue. I think it is an important issue and I encourage other members of the House to similarly take a constructive rather than obstructionist approach.

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