Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

As I answered in response to Senator Brown, the government’s decisions on design aspects of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will be made clear in the announcement on 15 December in the white paper. We have, as I have previously said in this place, undergone extensive consultation with the Australian community, both business and non-government organisations and members of the community, in relation to the design propositions which were put out in the green paper in July. Those propositions were put out for consultation for the precise purpose of ensuring we could have detailed consultation on what is a very substantial and significant economic reform—an economic reform I note those opposite have yet to indicate a position on.

In relation to aspects of what may or may not be in the white paper, those details will become clear when the government announces the design decisions and makes public those decisions through the publication of the white paper on the date that I have outlined. We are committed to ensuring that we progress this reform in an economically responsible way. That is what we have said consistently and that what we are doing.