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

I will not keep the committee but I rise to support the amendments proposed by Senator Allison. Like other senators in this chamber, I have had extensive correspondence from people involved in the alternative fuels—from the biofuels industry, in particular. They cannot believe what the government is doing. What they are saying is that the effect of the government’s action is to strengthen the hand of the entrenched big corporate players in the fuel industry to the absolute detriment of small business entrepreneurs. They point out that, if this goes ahead, people who have invested in these new technologies will lose confidence in government commitments and it will encourage them to locate their technology and other plans offshore.

That is exactly what has happened by the government abandoning the mandatory renewable energy target. We are seeing innovative technologies that deal with a whole range of issues, create jobs in rural Australia and deal with environmental issues all going offshore. There is simply no justification for what the government are doing. It is clear, by the government’s failure to be able to answer Senator Allison directly, that they either do not want to say it or they do not understand it. But what they are effectively doing is destroying this new industry. They are destroying this biodiesel segment of the fuel market, and that is disgraceful. It is a case of the Prime Minister saying one thing and doing another—which of course we are accustomed to seeing happen in this place. This is a big end of town, petrodiesel, petro-initiative at the expense of alternative fuels, and I will be supporting Senator Allison in putting that right.