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

I am afraid that that is the position. I am reminded that it was factored into the budget surplus in a contingency reserve, and perhaps that is why the member for Flinders had not picked that up.

In relation to landfill, only 34 councils—as of Friday, according to the list based on current data published by the Clean Energy Regulator—have been identified as liable entities on the Liable Entities Public Information Database. That is 34 councils of 559 nationally. The coalition, in yet another example of fearmongering and campaigning and misrepresentation and misleading statements, has been running around trying to terrify local governments about this issue. The fact of the matter is that the government has worked very closely with the Australian Local Government Association for several years—since the previous parliament—about how to structure landfill emissions to minimise methane liability under the carbon-pricing mechanism. Many local governments that operate landfill sites have already invested in methane capture technology, which is what triggers landfill liability. Many local governments, including in my own region, have already invested in methane capture technology in order to either flare the methane, which under a carbon-pricing arrangement will potentially reduce their liability below the emissions threshold that triggers liability, or use it to generate electricity. We have consulted very closely with the landfill sector and local governments about the issue that the member for Flinders pointed to—the potential diversion of waste. It might be recalled that, under the CPRS, mechanisms had been mooted to deal with the potential of that issue. We satisfied ourselves in consultations that that is an issue that it was not necessary to address under the clean energy future package at this point in time.

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