Kerry O'Brien (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Transport) Share this | Hansard source

I should be even-handed in the way that I deal with these amendments. I was critical of the minister’s office for not circulating the government’s amendments to the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Bill 2005. I must say that the opposition had no knowledge of and did not sight the Greens’ amendments until well into the second reading debate on this bill which, given the nature of and the detail in the amendments, makes it extremely difficult for the opposition to embrace the proposals in the amendments—not least because they propose to set up another fund under the control of a government minister.

We know what this government has done with funds that it has taken from industry or consumers. I am thinking of Dairy RAP, for example, through which $70 million, give or take a couple of million, found its way into all sorts of projects which were supposed to help the dairy industry—like wine appreciation courses at one of the private schools in Toowoomba, or a polocrosse field which seems to be nothing more than a fence and a gate and a shed. That field, which is also in southern Queensland, got many thousands of dollars.

We have had all sorts of inquiries into that sort of funding. We have had inquiries into a variety of successor programs through which millions of dollars have been used by this government to pork-barrel electorates around the country to try to shore up the haemorrhaging National Party vote in parts of the country. In those programs the National Party minister or, indeed, parliamentary secretaries assisting the minister had the sign-off and  final approval for millions of dollars. So for the Greens to propose an amendment which requires us to put more money in the hands of the government—money that seems to be under the control of a minister on first glance at the amendments—is something that we are concerned about. We would require some convincing before we were prepared to support that.

As I represent the member for Batman, Martin Ferguson, in this chamber, the first point I make is that the advice from his office is that there has been no consultation about these amendments. The amendments arrived just before one o’clock today. The fact that there has been no consultation puts Mr Ferguson’s office in a difficult position of making a call on behalf of the Labor Party in relation to these substantial and not inconsequential amendments. It is quite unfair for Mr Ferguson’s office to be placed in this position. I entreat Senator Milne and her colleagues to seek to consult about any serious amendments they want to put, rather than drop them on the table during a debate and expect a meaningful contribution from other senators and other parties in relation to them.

Progress reported.