Mark Dreyfus (Isaacs, Australian Labor Party, Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present a supplementary explanatory memorandum to the bill. I move:

The government amendments as circulated.

  (1)   Clause 9, page 4 (line 30) to page 5 (line 11), omit subclauses (2) to (4), substitute:

  (2)   In specifying the amount of a registration fee, or a method for calculating such an amount, for the purposes of subsection (1), the GEMS Regulator may take into account only the following matters:

  (a)   the cost of processing registration applications;

  (b)   the cost of compliance monitoring (including testing) in relation to models of GEMS products, for the purposes of the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards Act 2012.

The government proposes two amendments to the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards Bill 2012 and the Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (Registration Fees) Bill 2012. The Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards Bill 2012 implements a commitment by this government and the Council of Australian Governments to achieve nationally consistent regulation of equipment energy efficiency. The Greenhouse and Energy Minimum Standards (Registrations Fees) Bill 2012 implements cost recovery fees to support the main GEMS bill.

The two government amendments are raised in response to the inquiry into the GEMS legislation by the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee. The Senate committee noted the detailed policy intention outlined in the explanatory memorandum that queried whether two issues could be made more explicit in the legislation. The government is pleased to make these two amendments to deal with the issues raised by the Senate Scrutiny of Bills Committee. The first amendment makes clear that conditions imposed when a product is registered under the GEMS acts must be proportionate to the circumstances and give effect to the purposes of the act. For example, a condition might be imposed that a business registering heat pumps for commercial use must only use those products in a specific project and not install them generally throughout Australia.

A second amendment makes clear that registration fees are for the purpose of cost recovery only and are limited to recovering the cost of registering products and monitoring compliance with the act. Recovering a portion of these costs will ensure that the government can deliver, and improve, a registration and compliance monitoring regime that addresses inconsistencies in the existing state based programs. The amendments will make clear two aspects of a key policy reform that is an important part of ensuring affordable energy for all Australians and assisting Australia's transition to a low-carbon future. With these amendments, the Greenhouse and energy minimum standards legislation will ensure a consistent national energy efficiency framework for the benefit of Australian households and businesses.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Bill read a second time.