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

Senator Macdonald is a few months late with that question. That question really deals with what is known as the metric for assessing whether a company is emissions intensive trade exposed. I previously indicated publicly, and in my consultation at ministerial as well as departmental level with business, that the government was open to consideration of what was the most appropriate measure. Let us recall what the policy reason is for permits being given to emissions-intensive trade-exposed companies. It is to deal with the recognition that some of these firms trade on world markets and have an inability to pass on the price and therefore that has to be recognised in terms of the cost impact on those companies. The green paper proposes a way of dealing with that. (Time expired)