Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Climate Change) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—Firstly, I present a correction to the explanatory memorandum to the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment Bill 2009. I thank all of the members who have participated in the debate on the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment Bill, but before I go to the heart of the amendment bill I would like to address a few of the points raised by those opposite during the debate, including the most immediate previous speaker, the member for Herbert. These comments go to the issue of operational control for the mining sector and the reporting obligations that arise under this legislation. I welcome the indication that has been previously forthcoming from the member for Flinders that the opposition will support the amendment bill in the House and I do hope that this bipartisan support will carry forward into the Senate. The member for Flinders also indicated that the opposition will support the government’s tabled amendment in the House and in the Senate in relation to this issue, provided of course that it adequately addresses concerns raised by the mining industry about operational control. So I would like to address this issue briefly and explain how the amendment does address this question.

The additional government amendment that was tabled on 24 June responds directly to the industry feedback, including from the mining sector. The amendment will provide increased flexibility to industry, including the mining sector, in establishing reporting arrangements under the national greenhouse and energy reporting system from the first reporting year of 2008-09. The amendment introduces the reporting transfer certificate concept to allow the voluntary transfer of National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act reporting and record-keeping obligations from a controlling corporation where one member of its group has operational control of the facility to a member of a different corporate group that has financial control of that facility.

Aligning the reporting transfer certificate concept with the liability transfer certificate concept outlined in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill will also ensure that a high degree of continuity between current and future reporting requirements is achieved. The alternative amendment tabled by the opposition in the Senate to deem that a mine owner has operational control would not align with future arrangements under the CPRS and would not require the mutual agreement of the party taking on the reporting obligation. Such an amendment also would not only change the operation of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act but also amend the CPRS legislation, which relies on the definition of operational control in this act—the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act—to define entities that are liable for direct emissions from facilities.

The approach in the government’s amendment requires the consent of both parties to the transaction, such as the mine owner and the operator, and this will become increasingly important as taking on the reporting obligation will be a precursor to taking on the CPRS liability. In addition, and importantly, the government amendment is not industry specific to the mining sector. The bill provides other industry sectors with this increased flexibility, such as the commercial building sector. These provisions are voluntary and impose no additional burden on industry stakeholders beyond those originally intended by the act. They have been worked through methodically and are properly integrated with the rest of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting and CPRS legislation. So I hope that this explanation, and the accompanying detail in the supplementary explanatory memorandum that I will present in relation to the amendment, addresses any lingering doubts that the opposition have about the amendment addressing concerns from industry including the mining sector. I believe that they will.

The opposition has also argued that industry was given only a short time to consult on the legislation. This is a contention that we do not believe is accurate. This amendment bill is the result of comprehensive stakeholder consultation, including numerous discussion papers seeking stakeholder feedback, workshops and one-on-one discussions with key affected parties. As part of this consultation, the Department of Climate Change released a consultation paper and conducted workshops on the audit framework in October and November 2008. Three hundred audit professionals and reporting entities around Australia participated in those workshops. A consultation paper on amending energy production disclosure requirements under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act was also released for public comment over three weeks at the beginning of this year. Eight industry and stakeholder submissions were received on this consultation paper. An exposure draft of the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment Bill 2009—the bill before the House—was released for public comment for a one-week period commencing 23 February 2009 and no less than 22 formal submissions were received, 16 from industry and six from members of the public. In addition to this extensive stakeholder consultation, held over more than eight months, stakeholders will also be consulted on exposure drafts of audit regulations and the audit legislative instrument.

I would now like to make some comments on the amendment bill itself. The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Amendment Bill 2009 makes amendments to the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007. The National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 commenced on 29 September 2007, establishing a framework for mandatory reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, energy production and energy consumption by industry. This reporting framework is an important part of the government’s strategy to combat climate change in an economically responsible way. The act underpins the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, assists the government to meet Australia’s international reporting obligations and facilitates the reduction of duplicative industry reporting requirements under existing state, territory and Commonwealth programs. Under the act, corporations which exceed certain thresholds are required to register and report greenhouse gas emissions and energy data. The first reporting period under the act is the current financial year, 2008-09. The bill demonstrates the government’s continued commitment to an efficient and effective national greenhouse and energy reporting system, including a robust audit framework.

These amendments also support the establishment of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, with a staged approach to ensure a smooth transition for business and other affected parties. The bill reflects extensive stakeholder consultation on the audit framework to be established under the act and around reporting arrangements in the lead-up to the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The bill also requires individuals who conduct greenhouse and energy audits under the act to register with the regulator, the Greenhouse and Energy Data Officer, to ensure the quality of the auditing process. Stakeholders support a registration process for auditors, and through these amendments the government is developing the necessary framework for a robust auditor registration system.

This bill also allows the minister to determine by legislative instrument the requirements for the preparation, conduct and reporting of audits. This will ensure greater levels of consistency in the conduct of audits and reports provided by auditors. The amendments also clarify that the legislative instrument may outline different types of greenhouse and energy audits. This will provide the regulator with flexibility to target audits towards specific outcomes. Other amendments protect commercially sensitive information. The government recognises that reporting entities need confidence that commercially sensitive data will be protected.

Accountability is an important component of a world-class reporting system. The bill allows for review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of any decision by the regulator to refuse to register an auditor. This ensures that statutory decision making is transparent and defensible. The regulations will take these review rights further by ensuring all decisions by the regulator that affect registered auditors are reviewable.

The amendments also give the regulator the power to publish certain audit results. Currently the regulator has no power to disclose information on the outcomes of audits to the public. This is in response to stakeholder feedback that audit outcomes are a key indicator of the reliability of a corporation’s published greenhouse and energy information. The bill also removes the obligation for the regulator to publish energy production information that is aggregated in such a way as to be unusable and potentially misleading. The proposed amendments will address potential confusion between economy-wide energy production statistics, such as those produced by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and corporate-level energy production levels. Importantly, this will not affect the reporting obligations of corporations registered for reporting under the act. Neither will it affect the publication of corporate-level emissions and energy consumption data. Collection of energy production data will remain a key component of the act to inform government on energy flows across the Australian economy and to underpin energy statistics publications.

This bill is the result of continued comprehensive stakeholder consultation on the act and the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. The government has struck a balance between disclosing useful information to the public, by including provisions for disclosure of audit outcomes, and protecting commercially sensitive information. The amendments will make the audit framework for the act and the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme far more robust to support this government’s commitment to economy-wide accountability on greenhouse gas emissions, energy production and energy consumption. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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