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

This is precisely the point I am getting to. When the government went to the Australian people, they acknowledged we do not have the accounting in place to make robust claims about offsets. The reason reforestation and afforestation went in there is that there is methodology for that and you could apply it. For all these other things, there is no methodology.

Whether they are counted under Australia’s existing emissions reporting requirements or they go into the government’s national carbon offsets standards, which are outside our current requirements, you still have to have a robust methodology, which does not exist. The government’s previous claim was that by 2013 we would have a better idea and we could make a decision about agriculture. My understanding was that the reason for the delay to 2013 was these methodologies. I am concerned that the coalition has been sold a pup here by thinking that farmers are going to be able to benefit immediately from offset projects, when what we are seeing here in the documentation is that there would be voluntary emissions reporting trials in 2011 to allow the sector to better understand and manage its emissions. Presumably this work is going to go on through the next two or three years, which would take it out to about 2013, which is when the government previously said it would be ready to make a decision.

To follow through on that: I notice that you say that, first of all, you will be setting up the Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee. Then there will be regulations struck which provide for an authority to approve an application form. I notice that applications for Australian emission units must be accompanied by a report on the project in respect of the relevant reporting period. Then a report on an offset project must be accompanied by a prescribed audit report, and the audit report, therefore, must be in line with a set of robust methodologies. It is envisaged that the audit report will be prepared by a registered greenhouse and energy auditor as defined under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act. I ask the minister specifically: how many registered greenhouse and energy auditors do we have at the moment with expertise in agriculture, land use and emission offsets?