Future Made in Australia (Guarantee of Origin Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2024

The majority voted in favour of a motion that the bill, as amended, be agreed to. This means they can now decide on whether to pass the bill.

What does the bill do?

According to the bills homepage:

Introduced with the Future Made in Australia (Guarantee of Origin) Bill 2024 and Future Made in Australia (Guarantee of Origin Charges) Bill 2024, the bill amends the Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011, National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 and Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 to make amendments consequential on the establishment of the Guarantee of Origin scheme.

According to the explanatory memorandum (which is a document prepared by the Government):

The Future Made in Australia (Guarantee of Origin Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2024 (the GO Consequential Amendments Bill ) is part of a package of three Bills, including the Future Made in Australia (Guarantee of Origin) Bill 2024 (the GO Bill ) and the Future Made in Australia (Guarantee of Origin Charges) Bill 2024 (the GO Charges Bill ) that are intended to be introduced to the Parliament concurrently.

The Bill package would provide a framework for the establishment of a Guarantee of Origin ( GO ) scheme that would track and verify attributes associated with low-emissions products, starting with hydrogen, and establish an enduring certification mechanism for renewable electricity. Participants that opt in to the GO scheme, who produce low-emissions products or renewable electricity, would be able to create certificates that contain information about their emissions or renewable attributes that would be tracked through a public register providing greater certainty and trust to domestic and international customers. Green metals, low carbon liquid fuels and other products would be incorporated in the future.

The GO Consequential Amendments Bill would introduce amendments to the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 (the NGER Act ), the Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011 (the CER Act ), and the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000 (the REE Act ), to align those Acts with the GO Bill.

The GO Consequential Amendments Bill would:

• Introduce the concept of the GO audit into the NGER Act, to allow the NGER Act to extend the audit framework to GO audits, in the same way as it provides for safeguard mechanism audits, biodiversity audits, greenhouse and energy audits and emissions reduction fund audits.

• Include the Future Made in Australia ( Guarantee of Origin Act) 2024 (the GO Act ) in the definition of climate change law within the CER Act, to give the Clean Energy Regulator the functions conferred on it by the GO Act.

• Align liability rules for energy storage systems across the GO Act and the REE Act.