Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009

The majority voted in favour of a motion "That the bill, as amended, be agreed to."

This means that the MPs can now consider whether to read the bill for a third time and therefore pass it through House of Representatives and send it to the Senate for their consideration.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through here. ) In this case, the bill was subsequently read for a third time without further division.(See the Open Australia record of the third reading here. Read more about why divisions are not called on all questions in Parliament in our FAQ section. )

Background to the bill

The Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 was introduced as part of a package of six bills to introduce the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme.(Read more about the scheme on Wikipedia. ) This is an emission trading scheme designed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in an effort to address climate change. The scheme gives effect to Australia's obligations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

The design of the scheme has been criticised by the business community for threatening jobs and by environmentalists for not going far enough with its emission reduction targets.(Read more about these criticisms here.)

The six bills that were introduced as a package are called:

• the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009
• the Australian Climate Change Regulatory Authority Bill 2009
• the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (Charges-Customs) Bill 2009
• the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (Charges-Excise) Bill 2009
• the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (Charges-General) Bill 2009
• the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2009

References