Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens amendment, quite frankly, is nothing more than a recipe for bureaucracy and red tape, and obviously the government does not support that. We have indicated several times during the debate today that we do not support targets. The Greens continue to refer to other countries that have them. But when setting a target you need to have a mechanism in place to actually meet that target. Interestingly, many European countries are talking to Australia about this program as a mechanism to meet their targets. In fact, a recent Productivity Commission report on energy efficiency recommended against setting a target. We reiterate our perspective on that but do not support this amendment.