Ian Macfarlane (Groom, Liberal Party, Minister for Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Brand for his question. I will take parts of his question on notice. In terms of the specific skills that have been removed, I will give the member for Brand the detail of that but I will have to take that part of his question on notice, as I will the part on the graduate program. It is my understanding that there is no effect on the graduate program, but I will supply him with further detail in regards to that.

In regards to the actual staff movements, as of 30 May 2014 62 staff have departed Geoscience Australia. By 30 June this year a total of 76 employees will have departed. By the end of December this year a total of 85 employees will have departed. Five employees have elected to seek redeployment and have commenced their retrenchment period. Nine staff have been offered voluntary redundancies and are yet to indicate their preference to exit or seek employment. Existing and projected average staffing levels at Geoscience Australia are 716 in the year 2013-14 and 620 in the year 2014-15. As I said, though, I am entirely confident that there will be no effect on the capacity of Geoscience Australia.

In response to the member for Brand's question regarding the Renewable Energy Target, I take this opportunity to remind the House both of the coalition's commitment to renewable energy and, more importantly, of the fact that we are the fathers of this scheme. We established the Mandatory Renewable Energy Target. Senator Robert Hill, who was the environment minister at the time, implemented this. It has given an enormous boost to the implementation of renewable energy in Australia. We have seen projects built around Australia off the back of the scheme. In terms of Australia's percentage of renewable energy vis-a-vis the rest of the world, we can certainly hold our heads up.

In regards to the member for Brand's specific question about the review, he is quite right: Dick Warburton is an excellent choice as chairman as someone who has enormous respect in the business community as he has been involved in business a very long time and has been very successful at it. He and his equally as qualified committee are currently considering the impacts of the Renewable Energy Target on Australia's competitiveness and our ability to continue to maintain a target for renewable energy going forward. It is my understanding that the committee will release their modelling towards the end of this month and that they then will work from that point to prepare the report for government, which we would expect to receive some time after that—perhaps in the next few months.

I do not expect the government to be long in responding to that review. In terms of my own time lines, I need to hand down an energy white paper this year. I need to be able to be confident that, firstly, the Labor Party has seen the error of its ways—and it is still not too late yet—and will support the rescinding of the carbon tax. I need to see the carbon tax dealt with before I can have any forward concept on where energy policy is going in Australia. Hopefully that will occur in the next sitting of the Senate in early July. I also need to know where the government intends to set its policy in relation to renewable energy. We expect to see a response to the renewable energy review sooner rather than later, perhaps by the third or fourth quarter of this year.

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