Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Initially we had grave concerns about the state of this bill. In its original form it was proposing to slash the support the government has been providing to both the ethanol and the biodiesel industry—and that was of course in keeping with their hatred of clean energy generally. We have seen their attacks on wind farms just in the last week. We know that the government are trying, later today, to slash the renewable energy target and that they have repealed the mining tax and slashed the carbon price. So it was no surprise that this government was once again trying to weaken support for cleaner fuels—because it just does not get the need to transition to a low-carbon economy and does not understand that we can sustainably provide biodiesel and ethanol while ensuring that it does not compete with food-producing land or incentivise land clearing.

I am really pleased that, thanks to some excellent advocacy by, in particular, the Biofuels Association, the government and the opposition have agreed to amendments to this bill. I understand those amendments will allow a 15-year transition period to the reduced rate of excise that is now to apply to biodiesel. My understanding is that the industry now feel that they will not be kneecapped anymore and that their industry will in fact now be able to persist, given this longer transition period.

We maintain our extreme concern about the extent of climate change denialism in this government. We maintain the urgency of the need to transition to a low-carbon economy. Biofuels and ethanol are of course part of that transition, particularly if they are not competing with food-producing land or having impacts on land clearing or biodiversity. We know the industry can meet those parameters. The Greens have long supported cleaner fuels and, given that the industry is now content with the much longer phase-in period for this change to excise, we will be supporting this bill.