Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for his response. He highlighted that there is scope for a backdating, as such, of credits to the start of 1 July 2010, and I note him doing that. The EM states that that is to allow backdating of existing projects such as projects under the Australian government's Greenhouse Friendly program. My under­standing is that for the alternative waste treatment sector the bulk of the Greenhouse Friendly scheme credits they possess were generated during the period between 1 January 2008 and 1 July 2010; thereby meaning that they will, in the main, miss out on that backdating start date of 1 July 2010. Could the minister explain on what basis 1 July 2010 was set as the date and is it the government's understanding that the alternative waste treatment sector will largely miss out as a result of that date having been set?