Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, Senator Wong. I refer the minister to an opinion piece written by the Prime Minister, appearing in the Herald Sun of 30 May 2011, in which she wrote:

The best way to cut carbon pollution is to make up to 1000 of our biggest polluters pay …

I further refer to the Prime Minister's statement to the parliament, of 13 September 2011:

Around 500 polluters will pay.

Finally, I refer the minister to the current list of 294 entities liable to pay the carbon tax, published by the Clean Energy Regulator. Will the minister explain how the government got its initial estimates so wrong and was more than 70 per cent out on its original forecast of the number of liable entities?