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

I move the Australian Greens amendment (7) on sheet 5179:

(7)    Schedule 1, page 4 (after line 23), after item 5, insert:

5C  At the end of Part 8

Add:

Division 7—Energy Efficiency Target Taskforce

38A  Establishment of Energy Efficiency Target Taskforce

                 The Minister must, before the expiration of 3 months after the commencement of this Act, establish an Energy Efficiency Target Taskforce (the Taskforce) to inquire into and report on the establishment of a national energy efficiency target.

38B  Membership of Taskforce

        (1)    The Taskforce is to consist of 4 members, appointed by the Minister.

        (2)    The Minister must appoint members to the Taskforce with the following expertise:

             (a)    one member representing industry;

             (b)    one member representing conservation interests;

             (c)    one member representing the Commonwealth;

             (d)    one member with expertise and qualifications in energy conservation.

        (3)    The member appointed under paragraph (2)(c) must convene and chair the Taskforce.

38C  Report of the Taskforce

        (1)    The Taskforce is to report to the Minister within 18 months of the commencement of the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Amendment Act 2007.

        (2)    The Minister must cause a copy of the report of the Taskforce to be tabled in each House of Parliament within 5 sitting days of receiving it.

This amendment establishes an energy efficiency target taskforce to inquire into and report on the establishment of a national energy efficient target. It cites the membership of the taskforce and then it says that it is to report to the minister within 18 months of the commencement of this particular amendment act and that a copy of that report is to be tabled in each house of parliament.

As I indicated before, this is not setting what the energy efficiency target is. It establishes a mechanism so that Australia can have the option of an energy efficiency target. It is not saying what level the target is, but it is giving us a mechanism to move towards having a target. I still have not had an explanation from the government as to why you oppose establishing a national energy efficiency target. Any country that is serious about dealing with climate change has an energy efficiency target. You say that we are simply working with business to assist business to reduce their energy use, but to what end? Is it to assist them to be more profitable? That is fine, and if you mandated it, it would make them more profitable more quickly. But to what end? The reason other countries have national energy efficiency targets is that they are serious about reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, that they have ratified the Kyoto protocol and that they intend to meet the targets of greenhouse gas reductions. Therefore they are heavily into reducing demand and at the same time building renewable energy so that they can come within their targets.

Even if we are serious about even 108 per cent of 1990 levels, at the moment we are not on track to achieve it. Without the windfall of the land use, land use change and forestry provisions, Australia is on track for 127 per cent of 1990 levels. We are nowhere near what we need to do. If you are saying you will not have a national energy efficiency target, you are saying you have no commitment to a long-term reduction in greenhouse gases, unless you believe that clean coal and nuclear are somehow going to be operational in the time frame and somehow reduce greenhouse gases. The government has absolutely no capacity to do this because the technologies in the case of nuclear are too expensive, too dangerous and not going to happen in the time frame, and in the case of clean coal are unproven. It is fantasyland. Putting government money into that is not in the best interests of Australia and we will oppose it.

Let me come back to this—this is a mechanism for having a national energy efficiency target. I would hope that the Labor opposition is going to support this as well, because if we do not have a mechanism then we are never going to have a target and without a target we are not going to meet even the greenhouse gas reduction commitments we have, let alone our moral responsibility to the rest of the planet to get our emissions down. Let’s have a more serious answer than simply, ‘We’re working with companies to let some of them become more energy efficient.’ Without a target, without performance benchmarks, it is just a gesture to corporate Australia with no outcome.