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

I move Australian Greens amendments (3) and (4) on sheet 5179 together:

(3) Schedule 1, page 3 (after line 4), before item 1, insert:

1C  At the end of the heading to Part 3

Add “energy use threshold”.

(4)    Schedule 1, page 3 (after line 21), after item 2, insert:

2A  Subsection 10(1)

Repeal the subsection, substitute:

        (1)    The regulations must prescribe the energy use threshold.

     (1A)    The regulations must set a sliding scale for the energy use threshold of not more than 0.5 petajoules for a controlling corporation’s group for each financial year commencing in the 2007-08 financial year reducing annually to not more than 0.2 petajoules for a controlling corporation’s group by the financial year 2011-12.

      (1B)    A controlling corporation’s group meets the energy use threshold for a financial year if in that year the total energy used by the controlling corporation’s group is more than the energy use threshold nominated for the relevant financial year as prescribed by subsection (1A).

The government is proposing that the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Amendment Bill apply only to those companies that use more than half a petajoule of energy per year. As we said, that is 250 companies covering around 40 per cent of Australia’s total energy use.

The Greens believe that it is critical not only that we capture the companies that use more than half a petajoule but also that, over time, we expand the coverage of the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Amendment Bill to cover companies that use less than half a petajoule so that, over time, you would capture all the companies that use over 0.2 petajoules. We would go from half a petajoule down to 0.2 petajoules so increasingly, over time, we would capture more and more of the companies that are high energy users.

We are proposing that each financial year, commencing in 2007-08, it reduce annually to not more than 0.2 petajoules for a corporation by the financial year 2011-12. It is a progressive increase in the number of companies that are captured by this legislation, so that you progressively get energy efficiency measures moving through the system. We think it is important. I do not think it is enough to deal with just 250 companies. I think we have to increase that over time. We are suggesting a phase-in so that the energy use threshold is changed over time and we capture more and more of the nation’s large energy users.