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

I did ask Senator Cormann to respond and he only gave half an answer in his summing-up of the second reading. The government has said that its intention is to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, but it has been reported in the deal between the Palmer United Party and the government that the Palmer United Party has agreed that the abolition legislation can be brought on after 31 December this year. I was seeking clarity from the minister or the Palmer United Party: what is the deal in relation to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency?

In relation to another matter, and this is quite important for later developments, the bill leaves the definition of 'prescribed eligible carbon unit,' in section 3, untouched, including the classification:

It is immaterial whether the unit was created in or outside Australia.

My understanding of that is that all the minister has to do is to prescribe CERs as an eligible unit and the government can then spend any amount of the Emissions Reduction Fund on foreign permits. I am interested to know whether the government has intentionally given itself the power to purchase as many emissions as it wants to from overseas, despite the public statements.

The second question is: would a big polluter, under the baseline system, be able to buy cheap international permits if the minister prescribed CERs?