Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Joyce for his continued interest in climate change. It is quite encouraging. The government is committed to supporting jobs through the transition to a low-carbon economy, particularly in those areas where we are committed to helping abattoirs and meatworks make the most out of our clean energy package.

To answer the specific question, thresholds have to be set at some level; they are set at the 25,000-tonne level for an obvious reason. It is about trying to drive down the CO2 in the environment, including that emitted from meatworks. If you look at what we are doing to assist those areas, many meat processors have already spent time and energy investigating opportunities to become more efficient and to reduce emissions from their sedimentation ponds. Meat processors will also benefit from the $200 million Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment program for granting investments and programs about how you can mitigate, deal with, improve and reduce emissions; increase energy efficiency and opportunities of capturing methane from these ponds to generate electricity; and to provide better outcomes for the environment. Ostensibly this will drive down their carbon emissions.

In July I announced a new funding ratio under the clean technology investment with Minister Combet, including the food and foundries program, which allows directly liable businesses who emit less than 100,000 tonnes of CO2equivalent to access the one-to-one funding ratio. There is not only the level of 25,000 tonnes; there is also the 100,000-tonne level which provides a greater assistance to the industry to meet their emissions targets. This means that directly liable eligible— (Time expired)