I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

welcomes the call from the electricity sector for a greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme to promote investor confidence;

(b)

notes that:

(i)

the purpose of an emissions trading scheme is to create an economically efficient mechanism to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and

(ii)

notes that international emissions trading is a key mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol;

(c)

rejects the McKibbin-Wilcoxen proposal because it fails to cap greenhouse gas emissions and creates an unacceptable risk that long-term emission permits will be over-allocated; and

(d)

calls on the Government to announce the rules of an emissions trading scheme by 2008, for commencement in 2010.

Question put.

I seek leave to make a very short statement on behalf of the Democrats on that motion.

Leave granted.

I want to indicate that the Democrats were supportive of the majority of that motion but disagreed with (c) on the basis that it was a technical misunderstanding, as we understand it, of the model that is referred to.