Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Action, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the minister, and I am following on from his earlier answer. During the course of that answer the minister made reference to the fact that the price paid after 2015-16 may in fact be lower than the revenue projections in the budget. I would ask the minister whether he stands by the revenue projections in the budget, or whether he is indicating that the actual expectation of the government is for a lower price—consistent with the forward European market price—than has been projected in the budget. In short, is there a black hole in the budget, or was the statement about lower prices merely false? It is a binary question; only one answer can be true. I will just note this: the government's price projection for 2015-16 in the budget is down from $29 in last year's budget to $12.10 in this year's budget. That is approximately twice the current trading range for European permits in the three-year forward market. It is, a year later, three times the trading range for forward permits in the European market. So the question to the minister is, which is correct—are the government's revenue projections correct, or is the European market correct? Are we going to be paying over what the rest of the world is paying, or is there a black hole in the government's budget?

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