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

For the Consideration in Detail stage, I just want to make a short contribution about schedules 1 and 2 of the bill and also to speak to the amendments moved by the opposition. In particular, schedule 2 implements the small-business energy incentive that was announced in the budget. This is one component of the $1.7 billion in electrification and energy efficiency that the Greens secured through negotiations with the government. On budget night, it was slated as a $314 million package, but the way that the legislation has been designed does raise real concerns for us about whether the full amount of money will be spent.

Firstly, it only runs until the end of this financial year, which we're already deeply in, with only seven months remaining.

That makes it impossible for any thought-through and methodical energy-saving investments to occur for many businesses. Some may have seen that this was coming and may have prepared for it, but many won't have, and many small-business owners are just too busy to manage a project in these short time frames.

Secondly, unfortunately, despite the announcement made in the budget, we're yet to see anything from the Treasury or the department to promote awareness of this scheme amongst small and medium-sized business owners. Thirdly, installing solar panels is specifically excluded for no readily apparent reason.

Lastly, the equipment has to be installed ready for use by 30 June 2024, and questions were raised in the Senate committee hearings about whether that was going to be feasible and whether it was appropriate to be doing such significant work—involving electricity, obviously—in such a period of time. The last thing that we need at the moment is the forcing of important schemes into a tight deadline, so the schedule needs changing and the scheme needs to be extended.

There is a final important area where the bill needs to be improved. This will put beyond doubt that the cost involved in disconnecting a business premises from the gas network is a capital expense and is therefore eligible to receive government support under schedules 1 and 2. If you're applying a High Court pronouncement, there may be some uncertainty over whether disconnecting from gas is an operating expense or a capital expense. If it is, these one-off network costs could take advantage of the energy incentive and the instant asset write-off.

That brings us to schedule 1. Because of the way in which the energy incentive scheme works, is it a 20 per cent bonus on top of any existing asset deduction scheme, such as the instant asset write-off in schedule 1? Again, rather than just legislating this for the next seven months until we have to legislate it again, it also needs to be extended. The opposition is moving an amendment to lift the value of assets that can be instantly written off from $20,000 to $30,000. Given that this will support the value of the small business energy incentive, we see no reason to object to this proposal, so the Greens will support this current amendment in the House, but we reserve our position on the bill as a whole and any amendments until the Senate debate commences.

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