Senate debates

Thursday, 17 July 2014

Bills

Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2014, True-up Shortfall Levy (General) (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2014, True-up Shortfall Levy (Excise) (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2014, Customs Tariff Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2014, Excise Tariff Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2014, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2014, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2014, Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2014; In Committee

10:34 am

Photo of Mathias CormannMathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Singh's comments just now, that this schedule would cripple ARENA, are really quite unbelievable, because what this schedule does is give effect to a Labor savings measure out of their last budget. That is all it does. We are giving effect to a savings measure that you put in your last budget, that you initiated, that you banked in your last budget and that you failed to legislate. Now you come in here and say that somehow we are crippling ARENA. That is just unbelievable. Of course, the government that initiated that savings measure and banked it in the last budget—the Labor government—when I last looked, was supported by the Greens political party in government.

The Greens were standing behind the budgets of the previous government. The Greens have said that they were part of guaranteeing supply to the previous government. They have got a member in the House of Representatives who was a part of guaranteeing supply to the previous government. The previous government delivered a budget which reprofiled $370 million in funding over the forward estimates into later years—2019-20 to 2021-22—and reduced funding for ARENA by $435 million over the forward estimates. The changes in this schedule give effect to the Labor Party's last budget. So for Senator Singh to come in here and say that we are somehow crippling ARENA by giving effect to their last budget's savings measures is really quite hypocritical, I would suggest to the Senate.

As Senator Milne and Senator Singh would well know, the future of ARENA, structurally, is going to be the subject of different legislation. It is not the subject of the package of bills that is in front of us here today. The government will not be supporting these amendments. We will be voting for the schedules to stand as printed and that is what we would recommend every senator to do in this Senate—in particular given the absolute mess that the budget is in after six years of Labor waste and mismanagement.

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