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

I may not have understood the senator’s question, but I think her question was about why we had a particular position on offsets pre the negotiation with the opposition. Obviously, there was a negotiation, but this is also connected to our decision to exclude agriculture indefinitely. There is a difference between creating offsets when you are subsequently going to review whether a sector will come in and creating offsets when the policy position is that that sector is excluded indefinitely. We are in the second world now, and we do believe this is a sensible process. It is one which ensures environmental integrity and certainty for farmers. There is no point having an offset agreed for soil carbon, for example, that does not have integrity and is not regarded by the public, the community and the market as being additional, as having cogency. If we are serious about generating economic opportunities through this for farmers then it will have to have market credibility. We are seeking to put in place a regime which enables that, but it is a different position to the position prior to the negotiations being agreed with the opposition—absolutely.