Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

At the time the bill was introduced a penalty unit was $222, and in November 2022 the parliament passed the Crimes Amendment (Penalty Unit) Bill 2022, which updated the value of a penalty unit to $275 from 1 January 2023. The maximum civil penalty will be set at one penalty unit per tonne of excess emissions every year. I am trying to seek information—staff very helpfully point out that this is set out in the EM, which says it:

differs to the existing penalty that is set in the NGER Regulations, which for a non-individual is 100 penalty units for each day in an excess emissions situation, up to a maximum of 10,000 penalty units. For an individual, the existing penalty is 20 per cent of this amount—

noting that no covered facilities are individuals. There needs to be a degree of proportionality between the seriousness of the contravention and the quantum of the penalty; I've explained that. The EM says:

The level of the maximum penalty, being set at 1 penalty unit per tonne carbon dioxide equivalent of excess emissions, is intended to be commensurate with the adverse economic impacts of climate change, now and in the future …