Ron Boswell (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Milne says you can split them. You cannot split them if you do not know what the regulations are going to be. The regulations have not been determined because the EITE issue has not been agreed with the high-end electricity users. They were promised certificates. They were promised that they would get some form of relief. The industries are still in negotiations with the government. The cement industry are not aware of what certificates they are going to get. They know they are going to get some certificates; they do not know whether it is on just part of the manufacturing process or the total manufacturing process—and that is just the cement industry. All the other industries are in the same boat.

If the regulations were there, I would say you could go ahead with it, but the regulations are not there and they cannot be there for the reason that the negotiations are still going on with the high-end users of electricity. So I do not know what the rush is, Senator Milne, because you—