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

I will address Senator Milne’s first issue, which is the subject of the first set of amendments on sheet 5878, which is essentially in relation to the publishing of information. The government is not in favour of publicly reporting emissions in energy information at the facility level. I have indicated in my speech that corporate group reporting remains. But, obviously, in mandating public disclosure, the government has sought to balance the need to protect commercially sensitive information with the desire to inform the public and other data users about greenhouse gas emissions and energy use.

Industry stakeholders have highlighted significant issues around the release of commercially sensitive information if, for example, the information gives an indication of companies’ cost structures and it could be used by existing and potential competitors to inform their pricing and other commercial strategies. Energy and greenhouse emissions data can provide a reliable indication of the business costs of energy-intensive companies for whom energy is a major cost of production. Emissions data can also indicate the efficiency of particular technologies or facilities. In contrast, business costs cannot easily be derived from corporate level data which aggregates energy or emissions used across different activities and/or facilities. So the government is not supportive of the amendment.