Clean Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2012

The majority voted in favour of a motion to read the bill a second time.

This means that the members agree with the main idea of the bill and can now either discuss it in detail or vote to read the bill a third time without further consideration, which would mean that the bill is passed in the House and can be sent to the Senator for their consideration.

Background to the bill

The Clean Energy Legislation Amendment Bill 2012 is part of a package of three bills to include non-transport gaseous fuels in the carbon pricing mechanism. This would mean that the carbon pricing mechanism would apply to compressed natural gas from 1 July 2012. It would also apply to non-transport liquid petroleum gas and liquefied natural gas from 1 July 2013.

The two other bills are:

• Clean Energy (Customs Tariff Amendment) Bill 2012;
• Clean Energy (Excise Tariff Legislation Amendment) Bill 2012

Labor MP Greg Combet, who introduced the bills, explains that this bill was developed in response to consultation with the gaseous fuel sector, which had “expressed a strong preference to be able to access the carbon market” rather than paying the carbon price through a fuel tax arrangement.(Read MP Combet's whole explanation here. )

The carbon pricing mechanism is an emissions trading scheme which will commence on 1 July 2012.(See the Clean Energy Regulator’s website for more information on how it works.)

References