John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency. Will the minister update the House on the government's clean energy future legislation? Why was this morning's vote crucial and how does it build on nearly two decades of inquiries, discussions and debates?

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

I thank the member for Reid for his question. He has had a very long-term interest in the legislation that has been passed by the House this morning. It is legislation that will of course in the years to come be seen as a very important economic and environmental reform. The bills that the House passed this morning build on over two decades worth of consultation, work with industry, work with environment groups, negotiation, inquiry and many years of scientific work, and I am pleased to say, as the Prime Minister said earlier, that the House of Representatives has passed on this occasion from words to deeds. We are tackling climate change.

Subject to the consideration of the Senate, upon passage of the legislation, from 1 July next year Australia will have a price on carbon pollution. That will mean that the largest emitters of greenhouse gases in our economy will be obliged to acquire a permit or a carbon unit for each tonne of pollution that they produce and it will generate a very strong incentive to cut pollution and to invest in cleaner energy sources. It is a reform that is economically efficient, is environmentally effective and will be socially equitable. The fact of the matter is that by applying a market mechanism, an emissions trading scheme, the government's carbon price mechanism is the most cost-effective way to cut our greenhouse gas emissions. Business will have certainty about carbon pricing, and investment in long-lived assets, in particular in the energy sector, will be unlocked, with this uncertainty over carbon pricing resolved. Australia will begin to build a clean energy future. Billions of dollars of investment in renewable energy is anticipated. The government's plan will be environmentally effective because we will be setting caps on carbon each year when we move to emissions trading, and the caps will mean that by 2020 at least 160 million tonnes of emissions will be cut in that year. The new Climate Change Authority will be advising governments in years to come on the pollution caps necessary to make long-term emissions reductions.

Very importantly, the plan that the government has put forward that has been carried by the House this morning is socially equitable because nine out of 10 households will receive assistance to meet very modest price impacts. In fact, over four million low-income households will receive assistance that is at least 20 per cent more than their expected price impact. The tax-free threshold will be trebled. A million people will be released from the lodgement of a taxation return. Significant benefits will be delivered for low- and middle-income earners, including for many women, casual and part-time workers.

This is a Labor reform through and through. In this parliament this legislation was formulated by government members and members on the multiparty climate change committee. Finally, I would like to thank the crossbenchers who participated so constructively and with such courtesy in the proceedings of that committee. I am very confident that, once this legislation has finally passed the parliament, those who supported it will be seen as having acted in the best interests of future generations and those who opposed it will be exposed through the hollow fear campaign that they have conducted. (Time expired)