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

Earlier today, in making my contribution on this amendment and acknowledging the problem that we had, I indicated that I would be taking a watching brief according to what has been negotiated in discussions between all parties, with the Greens talking to the LNC, Senator Xenophon and the govern­ment. I have had further meetings in relation to this and I am now satisfied that there will be an outcome within a month that will set an appropriate baseline that is fair and takes into account what would have occurred otherwise and what can genuinely be regarded as additional. I am satisfied that we will get to that outcome within a month to the satisfaction of all parties. The sooner that can happen the better for all parties concer­ned. I thank the industry across Australia for having drawn the attention of the Senate to what could have been a perverse or bad outcome. That is one of the good things about having a community engaged with legislation as it goes through—you can actually get to address some of these issues.

One of the main concerns I have about the amendment is the impact on the integrity of the DOIC as it has been established. The whole point here was to have an independent and rigorous assessment of methodologies and have a body that can come up with baselines and methodologies for the kinds of numbers that we come up with that are rigorous and can be defended in any fora, both domestic and global. I want to make sure that we do not have political direction of the DOIC which would undermine at the start the very idea of having an independent integrity commission.

At the same time I want to make sure that there would not be job losses or the closing down of facilities that are assisting us in reducing our emissions across Australia. I indicate to the Senate that the Greens will be opposing this amendment for that reason. I am satisfied that we have now reached a conclusion that will be satisfactory to all parties. I also put on the record that if a resolution of this issue does not occur in the next four weeks to the satisfaction of all parties, we will be discussing it again.