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

My question is to the Minister representing the Treasurer, Minister Wong. It relates to the coalition's policy to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which is a $10 billion Greens initiative secured in the clean energy package. Will the minister confirm, as the Greens have done today in writing to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, that the government will not support any moves in the federal parliament now or in the future to abolish this critically important institution for the rollout of renewable energy, for jobs growth, innovation and national economic competitiveness?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Senator for the first question to me for 2013. In relation to the CEFC the only reporting I have seen on that is in the context of a few more stunts from the opposition to try to distract from anything of weight and anything that is of policy relevance to the Australian people. Yet, what we have seen from this opposition is more stunts and an assertion by the shadow Attorney-General—an incorrect assertion which I note he is crab walking away from—about caretaker conventions and what that means, and Mr Hunt trying to generate a bit of press by writing letters and demanding that people in a statutory body do something or not do something. Everybody in Australia knows all of this is designed to distract attention from the fact that those opposite simply have no plans for the future of the nation.

In relation to the proposal to which the Senator refers, the Senator would be aware that is not the only cut that the coalition have proposed. As the Leader of the Government in the Senate has reminded us, the coalition also want to take money from families with children at school by abolishing the Schoolkids Bonus, and they want to take money from low-income Australians. These are the priorities of the Leader of the Opposition, who pretends to everybody that he is the worker's champion. Meanwhile, his secret plan really is to take the knife to the social services of working Australians, and one of the few things he is prepared to front up on is that he is going to ensure that the tax breaks that we are giving, as a government, to working Australians are ripped back, taken back, and—this is the policy we might have come to shortly—his plan to increase the taxation for low-income earners' superannuation. (Time expired)

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

I thank the Minister, but I ask her again in a supplementary question: will she confirm that the government will not support any move in the federal parliament to abolish this critically important institution, and does the government concede that the renewable energy target is not sufficient on its own to promote private sector investment in technologies already established elsewhere, like solar thermal plants? Can she confirm that without the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, Australia will be denied concentrated solar power and lose competitiveness in the green economic race?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Some aspects of the question are probably better addressed to the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change, certainly in relation to the Renewable Energy Target. I will seek to deal with what I can in terms of the Treasury portfolio, which is the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. I am a little bemused by the request for the government to reassert existing policy, which is that we supported the passage of the CEFC through the parliament. We have appointed people to its board. It is government policy. I acknowledge it arose out of the negotiation in the context of Clean Energy Future package. It remains government policy. There is no change in government policy in that regard, so I am not sure whether the Senator is seeking anything further than that. I make this point: what we do see in this debate is a focus by the opposition on process stories that they are seeking to generate— (Time expired)

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

Mr President, I ask a second supplementary question. I ask the Minister: what is the impact on business certainty and investor confidence, particularly for those businesses transitioning to a low-carbon economy, of the coalition's policy to dismantle emissions trading and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation?

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Finance and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On this issue, Senator Milne has, in fact, touched on one of the worst aspects of the opposition's position, which is their complete disregard for business confidence and for the certainty which underpins investment confidence—complete disregard for investment certainty in the area of energy and in the area of climate policy. What we do know from businesses is that they want certainty. People have long-term investment time frames, and what we have from those opposite is a deliberate campaign to undermine that investment certainty. The issue here is those opposite would much rather play politics than see the nation succeed. They would always rather play politics than see business confidence high. They would always rather be aggressively negative than see good results on the economic front. (Time expired)