Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

The coalition supports the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Amendment Bill 2010. In fact, it was the coalition that introduced the Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Legislation Amendment Bill in 2003 to place controls on substances that have a detrimental environmental impact on the global atmosphere, particularly ozone-depleting substances and synthetic greenhouse gases used as an alternative to ozone-depleting substances. Indeed, I recall that some 20 or so years ago in the Tasmanian Liberal government the then environment minister, Peter Hodgman, leading the way in Australia in this very area. The coalition has long had a strong practical action plan, and that has been well documented in the other place.

For the purposes of the record, the objectives of the bill are: to provide greater flexibility to the penalty regime, to allow ongoing staged phase-out of equipment in Australia using hydrochlorofluorocarbon to complement the staged phase-out of bulk HCFC imports needed to service this equipment, to codify the rights of those being investigated for any breach of the act and to clarify the definition of ‘forfeitable goods’ and its application to avoid confusion for users over what a forfeitable good is and make it easier for inspectors to enforce the act. The coalition supports this bill.