Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General. I refer the Attorney to the Australian Crime Commission's report Organised Crime in Australia 2011, which states:

In Norway, a group is being investigated for carbon tax evasion as part of a Europol tax fraud probe into allegations that up to five billion euros of revenue has been lost.

Cyber criminals also allegedly accessed European business systems and stole legitimate carbon trading permits, which were then sold on the open market.

Attorney, are these the same markets from which the government believes that Australians must purchase $3½ billion in foreign carbon credits by 2020?

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The House will come to order. The Attorney-General has been asked a question. I would have thought those on my left would want to listen to the answer having asked the question.

Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Members should be advised that the government was aware of that report in designing the regulatory framework that will apply to the arrangements that we are developing in Australia. There was some debate, I think five to six weeks ago, regarding the extent and the intensity of that regulatory framework and, indeed, in many cases quite strong penalties that are being applied to prevent that sort of behaviour. That information has been within the knowledge of the government. It has been taken into consideration in the design of the framework. In terms of the relevant markets that are part of that design, the relevant minister has advised the public of those matters.