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

I would like to know whether the government took into account the modelling other than the McLennan Magasanik modelling and whether those other reports, by Roam Consulting et cetera, were taken into account as well. It seems to me that only the government’s report gives that increase. All the others talk about the downward pressure on the pool price. So I am very interested to know if the government considered those other modelling reports. I note the government did not name any countries in the context of trade exposure or any countries that have the renewable energy target. She talked about meeting the test; I am interested to know which countries this is going to apply to and how.

In terms of the transparency issue, the minister says she does not know what the contracts are with these energy intensive industries, but she is giving them an exemption anyway. Surely, the due diligence of the Commonwealth should have been to establish which energy intensive industries are paying the mandatory renewable energy target to start with. No, they are not exempted—that is absolutely right—and they ought not be exempted. It has been a decision of state governments to pay it for them. It is a choice of state governments to subsidise them, which is fine if they want to do that. So why would you now exempt them into the future when their contracts are up for renewal? I just do not understand why the Commonwealth would make a decision to exempt them when they are not paying already and, essentially, will have no intention of paying.