Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Even if that is the case, and even if there is that obscure number of one billion litres—and just because it is there I do not know whether it is correct; I have reports, made since that time, that raise very strong doubts that we are ever going to produce one billion litres in the form that they are talking about, but let us grant them that and say we will—then if we use this phrase, ‘We’re closing a loophole’, then what we have proven here tonight is that we have not. It is still there, it is just that now if that billion litres becomes part of the five per cent component of the standard diesel then we have proven here tonight that the loophole—if we want to call it that, and it is not; it is a production subsidy to engender an industry, drive regional economies and give some hope back into some of these areas that have been left behind that has come about and that we can see prospering at the moment—is not closed. It was there before, and it will be there after. It is just the form of where that proportion of biodiesel goes. It now goes into the fuel that is 95 per cent diesel and five per cent biodiesel. So what is the purpose of clause 43-5, page 16, lines 31 to 32?