Josh Frydenberg (Kooyong, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Amendment Bill 2017 will provide minor amendments to the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011. This bill will build on the success of the Emissions Reduction Fund.

The Emissions Reduction Fund is helping to reduce Australia's emissions at the lowest cost. The government has contracted 178 million tonnes of emissions reductions at an average price of $11.83 a tonne.

The fund provides a broad range of opportunities across the economy to reduce emissions and sequester carbon. Pastoralists and Indigenous groups can earn carbon credits by implementing fire management practices, farmers can store carbon in their soils and improve productivity, and businesses can improve the energy performance of their lighting systems, industrial processes and transport operations. As well as reducing Australia's emissions, the fund generates income for participants, employment for rural communities and investment in innovative technologies.

More than 70 projects are registered under the act, which reduce emissions by undertaking early dry season burns in Australia's northern savannas that reduce the intensity and the size of wildfires. This bill will help unlock new opportunities to reduce emissions and store carbon in the landscape in northern Australia by facilitating new savanna fire management project types. This will provide Indigenous communities and farmers with opportunities to increase employment, earn revenue, support biodiversity and protect their land from wildfires.

The bill will also reduce regulatory burden and increase flexibility for projects. It will help participants in the fund by clarifying consent requirements to conduct projects. It will make it easier for projects to adapt their project areas to their evolving needs, preserving emissions reductions and business flexibility. It will also ensure the requirements to return credits if a proponent reduces the size of their project or ends a project as appropriate.

These amendments demonstrate the government's ongoing commitment to reduce red tape, streamline administrative processes and reduce emissions.

Debate adjourned.