Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I now move Australian Greens amendment (9) on sheet 5179:

(9)    Schedule 1, page 4 (after line 25), after item 6, insert:

6A  At the end of Part 9

Add:

42  Review of operation of Act

        (1)    The Minister must cause an independent review of the operation of this Act to be undertaken as soon as possible after the fifth anniversary of the commencement of Energy Efficiency Opportunities Amendment Act 2007.

        (2)    The person who undertakes the review under subsection (1) must give the Minister a written report of the review.

        (3)    The Minister must cause a copy of the report of the review to be tabled in each House of Parliament within 12 months after the fifth anniversary of the commencement of the Energy Efficiency Opportunities Amendment Act 2007.

This relates to an independent review of the operation of the act to be undertaken as soon as possible after the fifth anniversary of the commencement of the act. It requires that there be a written report of the review and that a copy of that review be tabled in each house of parliament within 12 months after the fifth anniversary of the commencement of the act.

There is a need for an independent review. We have had enough evidence over a decade of the government being in power—undertakings that were made that did not come to pass—to show that you need independent reviews of the operations of many of these pieces of legislation, as Senator Allison just indicated. We want to make sure that there is an independent review so that there is an honest appraisal of the effectiveness of this legislation. The government has refused to mandate implementation of energy audits and only requires that the audits be carried out, not that action has to be taken. As such, there has to be some assessment of the legislation’s effectiveness and of what energy savings have been made so that we can move to the next step. It is inevitable that there will be mandated implementation.

The independent review will occur after five years. Frankly, I would like to change it to a review after one year and would be happy to take an amendment to that effect if the government would support it. Five years is a very lenient time frame. We need to know who is right. The government is saying that you do not need legislation making it mandatory for companies to implement these audits. It is clear that both the Democrats and the Greens believe that you do. After 12 months or so, let alone five years, it should be obvious. Nevertheless, there is a strong argument for an independent review of the operation of the act.