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

I thank the minister for taking on this issue, for giving it the consideration she has and for putting in a threshold, if you like. I do think it is important and industry have indicated very strongly their concern. I would like to know, though, from the minister the assumptions behind the government’s modelling for the 16.2 million so that, by the end of the year, we can understand what is going on with the government’s modelling in relation to these matters. If the assumptions have been so wrong before, don’t we need to know who is feeding assumptions into these models and what level of consultation is going on with industry to ensure the assumptions going into the models bear some resemblance to the reality of the market? The minister may wish to take it on notice, but I would like to know the assumptions behind the 16.2 million RECs. I appreciate the government’s move to 20 million. My amendment states that the figure should be 16.2 million but anything above that should be added on to the target in the two subsequent years. Before I seek leave to withdraw the amendment, though, I would ask the minister to just outline at this time, to save having the debate later, how those additional RECs will be accommodated in the government’s proposal.