Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (1), (2), (5), (6), (7), (9), (10) and (11), as circulated in my name, together:

(1)   Schedule 1, heading, page 3 (line 2), at the end of the heading, add “and prohibition on Commonwealth support for coal-fired electricity generators”.

(2)   Schedule 1, item 1, page 4 (after line 2), at the end of section 153A, add:

This Part also prohibits certain Commonwealth support for coal-fired electricity generators.

(5)   Schedule 1, item 1, page 27 (after line 6), after Division 6, insert:

     Division 6A—Prohibition on Commonwealth support for coal-fired generators

     153ZBA This Division binds the Crown

This Division binds the Crown in right of the Commonwealth. However, it does not bind the Crown in right of a State, of the Australian Capital Territory or of the Northern Territory.

     153ZBB Prohibition on Commonwealth support for coal-fired generators

     (1)   The Commonwealth or an authority of the Commonwealth must not, on or after the commencement of this Division:

           (a)   provide financial support or other support for the purpose (or for purposes that include the purpose) of the refurbishment or building of a coal-fired generator; or

           (b)   purchase, or assist the purchase or transfer of ownership of, a coal-fired generator; or

           (c)   provide financial support to an owner or operator of a coal-fired generator to use, fund, extend the life of or operate the generator.

     (2)   For the purposes of this section, financial support includes any support that involves a current or potential future financial exposure to the Commonwealth, including the Commonwealth underwriting investments or entering into other financial arrangements.

           Exception—regulatory processes

     (3)   Subsection (1) does not apply to support or assistance provided solely for purposes connected with the Commonwealth or authority:

           (a)   processing an application for an approval, licence or permit (however described) that is required under a law of the Commonwealth; or

           (b)   undertaking any other regulatory process under or in accordance with a law of the Commonwealth.

            Exception—transition assistance or research

     (4)   Paragraph (1)(a) does not apply to:

           (a)   financial or other support provided in connection with a program that provides transition assistance to workers affected, or who may be affected, by the retirement of a coal-fired generator; or

           (b)   funding research by an approved research institute (within the meaning of section 73A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936), so far as the research relates to coal-fired generators generally and does not relate only to a particular coal-fired generator or particular coal-fired generators.

            Exception—managed closures

     (5)   Subsection (1) does not apply to:

           (a)   the provision of support in relation to a coal-fired generator; or

           (b)   the purchase, or the assisting of the purchase or transfer of ownership, of a coal-fired generator;

if the purpose, or one of the purposes, of the support, purchase or assistance is the managed closure of the coal-fired generator.

            Subsection (1) has effect despite other laws

     (6)   Subsection (1) has effect despite anything in this Act or any other law of the Commonwealth (whether passed or made before or after the commencement of this section) unless the law expressly provides otherwise.

     (7)   Subsection (6) does not affect the operation of section 153ZC.

            Executive power of the Commonwealth not otherwise limited

     (8)   This section only limits the executive power of the Commonwealth to the extent set out in this section and does not, by implication, limit that power to any other extent.

(6)   Schedule 1, item 1, page 27 (line 11), omit “5 and 6”, substitute “5, 6 and 6A”.

(7)   Schedule 1, item 1, page 27 (line 13), omit “5 or 6”, substitute “5, 6 or 6A”.

(9)   Schedule 1, page 29 (after line 5), after item 2, insert:

     2A Subsection 2A(1)

     Omit “44E and 95D”, substitute “44E, 95D and 153ZBA”.

(10)      Schedule 1, item 3, page 29 (line 8), after “XICA”, insert “(other than Division 6A)”.

(11)      Schedule 1, item 14, page 31 (after line 11), at the end of the item, add:

        (3)   Subitem (1) does not apply to Division 6A of Part XICA of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010, as inserted by this Schedule.

It's clear from the last two votes in this parliament that the government and the opposition are prepared to intervene in the energy market and tell companies what to do, and it's clear that the government and the opposition are content with intervening to say, 'Let's keep coal-fired power stations open for longer even where the companies agreed to close them down.' So we are squarely within the realm of: what is the appropriate way for the government to get involved in the energy market?

These amendments do a very simple thing. These amendments say that you cannot use public money to keep open a coal-fired power station for longer or to help build a new one. That is very, very important when we are dealing the question of how the government is going to get in and rummage around in the internal workings of the energy market—as this bill is clearly dealing with—and where we now have a bipartisan position that it is okay to keep coal-fired power stations open for longer, using the powers under this bill—

Mr Burns interjecting—

Well, you just voted for it. You may not know it, but you just voted for it. I hear the interjection from the member for Macnamara. We know, separately, that the government want to intervene in the market to use public money to keep coal-fired power stations open for longer. We know that because we've read about it in newspapers that they are finalising their shortlist and they want to take money that could be going to schools and hospitals and use it to keep coal-fired power stations open for longer or, in other ways, support the operations of existing coal-fired power stations or potentially create new ones. These amendments would put a stop to that. These amendments say, 'No; public money is for schools, hospitals and renewables.'

At a time when we need an orderly government plan to retire coal-fired power stations and replace them with renewable energy, we should not allow the government to intervene in a way that is going to prop up an industry that should be on the path towards managed closure—in an orderly way that respects the workers, that keeps the lights on and that ensures that prices start coming down. These amendments are very sensible and, in the past, the opposition and others have supported them. I hope that this is a set of amendments that can be carried, because at the moment we know that the government are hell-bent on using every power they have to use public money to keep more coal in the system—and we have to stop them.

Those who believe in the free market should support this because it's about saying, 'Don't use government money to subsidise something that should be on the way out.' And this is something that should be supported by those who believe in climate change and accept the science of climate change. I suspect that, if you asked most people in this country, 'How would you rather a public dollar be spent: do you want it to make dental care available for everyone under Medicare, do you want it to go to schools and hospitals or do you want it to prop up coal-fired power stations?' they would say, 'We would rather it go to services.' I think most people would be shocked to know that the government currently does have the power to give public money to coal-fired power stations.

I commend these amendments to the House. I hope that, especially in the context where the door has been opened by the opposition by saying, 'We're going to accept the government's bill on certain provisos,' they include this proviso as well. If they're now in the business of negotiating and doing deals with the climate-denying government to pass their energy policy, then they should insist on something that will stop the government keeping coal-fired power stations open for longer than they should, especially if it involves taking money from the public purse and putting it towards coal-fired power stations.

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