Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the motion be amended by omitting paragraph 2(c), and replacing it with:

'(c)   join in other appropriate international action to prevent the application of the European Union ETS to non-European Union airspace'

The proposed change omits paragraph 2(c) and inserts a new paragraph, which, I understand, will meet the favour of the House. I will not therefore speak at length about it. It calls on the government to join in appropriate international action to prevent the application of the European Union ETS to non-European airspace. It recognises that the original motion may have called upon the government to take some actions which were unwise. This gives it some freedom to ensure that actions are always wise. But it does still include the very key of the proposal, namely, that Australia should do something about the outrageous imposition by the European Union on other countries of what is essentially a tax for flying into their part of global airspace. The reality is that the way the tax is situated, it can be collected on foreign airlines flying over their own airspace. This is clearly an affront to all of the international principles that have been espoused by the international aviation community and, indeed, by the United Nations. It seeks to assert sovereignty over areas where clearly they do not have that right. I think it is important for government to speak out and to act strongly to resist these sorts of initiatives.

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