Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Waters for her question. At the outset, let me make it clear that I completely reject the assertion at the end of Senator Waters' question. The truth is that this government will ensure that Australian meets its climate change targets, just as Australia has always done so. Australia met its targets under the Kyoto Protocol, Australia will meet the five per cent bipartisan target for reduction by 2020 and Australia will meet, ultimately, the target that our government has released for a 26 to 28 per cent reduction by 2030.

In relation to the safeguard mechanism, the safeguard mechanism compliments our Emissions Reduction Fund and will commence on 1 July 2016. We have released draft rules and regulations for consultation around that safeguard mechanism. We seek to strike the right balance with this. We are tackling the emissions and making sure that we meet our targets, while ensuring that Australian businesses have the flexibility they need to be able to grow and to continue to create jobs in the future.

We are having extensive consultations with the business community to make sure that this safeguard mechanism is appropriate and accurate, but it has always been our commitment and our expectation that there would be zero budget revenue from the safeguard mechanism. It is our clear expectation that businesses will find that this is an appropriate mechanism and they will adhere to it, and therefore they will not be paying penalties under it. It will not be necessary for them to do so, because we will be able to deliver the emissions reductions—as we are already doing through the Emissions Reduction Fund—at appropriate cost and at the lowest cost for that abatement. That will meet our targets. We have already seen that success from the first round of options under the Emissions Reduction Fund where we have secured reductions at a far lower cost than the carbon tax the previous government had in place. It is at a far, far lower cost and will get us to the 2020 target quite comfortably. (Time expired)