Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to draw attention to the Greens amendments that have been circulated. I hope that people have the amendments in front of them. In my speech in the second reading debate I spoke about the need to have an energy efficiency target. We currently do not have a national target. It is one way of ensuring that we have a benchmark against which to measure any appreciable changes in terms of energy efficiency. It also gives us the opportunity to bring in measures that will allow us to meet the target.

As it stands, the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Bill 2005 simply asks companies to do their audit but does not require them to implement any of the findings that they might achieve as a result of their report. So they report, essentially, and then do nothing. There is no requirement, no enforcement, no compliance and no accountability. The only thing with the government’s legislation is that they report publicly. Then the hope is that, by osmosis, after they report they will be somehow inclined to implement the changes.

What I am doing with these amendments is facilitating the establishment of a national energy efficiency target by amending clause 3 so that the object of the bill will be not only to promote the identification and implementation of measures to reduce energy consumption through energy efficiency but also to facilitate the establishment of a national energy efficiency target. The second part of the amendment to the object of the act will require corporations to not only undertake an assessment of their energy efficiency opportunities to a minimum standard and report but also implement their identified energy efficiency measures.

In order to do that, what I propose is that the minister establishes a task force of experts to report on the implementation of a national energy efficiency target. So the amendments are not actually establishing the target at this particular time—the object of the first amendment that I am moving is to facilitate the establishment of a national energy efficiency target through the establishment of a task force of experts to report on that. I have set out in further amendments the actual nature of the task force to be established and the make-up of the task force. The amendments would require that the task force report to the minister within 18 months of the commencement of the act and that the task force then lodge that report in both houses within 12 months. So it would actually set up a parallel process. The Energy Efficiency Opportunities Bill would come into effect but, parallel with that, there would be a task force established to look at setting up a national energy efficiency target. That is the first objective of the amendments which are going to be moved in a moment.

The second objective of the amendments to be moved in this discussion relates to an energy savings fund. What we are proposing is to set up an energy savings fund to encourage energy savings, address peak demand, stimulate investment in innovative energy savings measures, increase public awareness and acceptance, encourage cost-effective energy savings measures and provide funding for contributions made by the Commonwealth for the purposes of national energy regulation. As I said in my speech in the second reading debate, the purpose of the fund is not to provide money for the renewable energy industry but, rather, to help to promote this whole idea of energy efficiency.

Given the announcement that the proposal for smart meters will go to the COAG meeting this week, clearly the Commonwealth is intending that the states fund the roll-out of the smart meters. It is unlikely that the states will agree to that. No doubt some compromise will be reached. But specifically one way to do it would be to establish an energy savings fund which was partly funded by the Commonwealth but also where the minister was able to require corporations to make a contribution to the fund. Then there would be a pool of money to assist in the roll-out of national strategies to in fact harvest the energy savings through energy efficiency.

The problem I have with the government’s bill is not the principle of it but the fact that it requires no implementation. That is why I am moving for that. That is probably all I need to say on that. I take it, from the way that the amendments have been set out, that the amendments to clause 3 and after clauses 20 and 38 will be put as one.