Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

I do acknowledge the point you made, Senator Milne, about the fact the we have had a number of ministers in the chamber for this stage of the bill. I had to go to an important meeting and the Manager of Government Business had to come in to field some questions. As I indicated earlier, we are introducing an emissions-trading scheme. It has been well received by the community, and you have acknowledged that as well. I cannot comment on the intricacies of how that will work. I think the timetable that Senator Wong released, I think on Monday this week, would probably be where you would find the answer to your question.

But I do refer you again to the fact that the bill does provide that Infrastructure Australia will have a function to provide advice on infrastructure policy issues arising from climate change. As I said earlier, you and I will disagree on where in the bill that is placed, and you have made your points about why you think that should be somewhere different. We have heard them and we have now been debating these amendments for quite some time, and I think we have possibly exhausted the argument.

Question put:

That the amendments (Senator Milne’s) be agreed to.