Greg Combet (Charlton, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

This bill imposes the charge payable by a person to the Commonwealth for the surrender of an international unit in the years beginning on 1 July 2015, 2016 and 2017, as a tax within the meaning of section 55 of the Constitution.

The bill imposes the charge, but only to the extent the charge is neither a duty of customs nor a duty of excise. The charge will ensure that a minimum charge—or in economic terms, a ‘price floor’—applies to all units that are surrendered by liable entities for the first three flexible charge years of the carbon pricing mechanism, whether they are domestic units or international units. I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.