10th Jul 2014, 12:16 PM – Senate Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 [No. 2] and related bills - In Committee - Agree to bills

The majority voted against a motion "that the Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 (No. 2) as amended and seven related bills be agreed to". This means that the majority reject the bills in their current form.

Rejecting bills in the committee stage(Read about the stages that a bill must pass through to become law here. ) is unusual "because the opportunity to reject a bill completely is at the second reading, and if the committee of the whole has agreed to amendments it should not be rejecting the bill as amended".(See Odgers' Australian Senate Practice here. ) The committee will now report to the Senate that the bills have been negatived in committee and the Senate will vote on whether adopt the report or not.(See that division here. )

Background to the bills

The Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 (No. 2) and related bills were introduced to remove the carbon pricing mechanism, which was introduced by the Australian Labor Party while in government. The Coalition described the mechanism as a “carbon tax” and removing it was a key policy platform during the 2013 election.(You can read more about the Coalition's policy to remove the carbon price here. )

The carbon pricing mechanism commenced on 1 July 2012.(For more information on the carbon pricing mechanism and how it works, please see the Clean Energy Regulator’s website. ) It is an emissions trading scheme that puts a price on carbon emissions. It applies to “liable entities” (a group that includes companies that emit a high level of greenhouse gases). Initially the price of carbon is fixed by the mechanism but from 1 July 2015 the price will be set by the market, though the Labor Government did announce plans to bring this forward to 1 July 2014 just before they were defeated by the Coalition in the 2013 election.

This is the second time that this package of bills has been introduced, after they were rejected in the Senate during the third reading stage the first time round.(See that division here. )

The other related bills that were introduced along with the Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 (No. 2) are:

• Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 (No. 2);
• Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Manufacture Levy) Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 (No. 2);
• True-up Shortfall Levy (General) (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 (No. 2);
• True-up Shortfall Levy (Excise) (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 (No. 2);
• Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas (Import Levy) (Transitional Provisions) Bill 2013 (No. 2);
• Customs Tariff Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 (No. 2);
• Excise Tariff Amendment (Carbon Tax Repeal) Bill 2013 (No. 2);
• Climate Change Authority (Abolition) Bill 2013 (No. 2).

The Clean Energy (Income Tax Rates and Other Amendments) Bill 2013 (No. 2) was introduced along with these bills but was rejected in the Senate at the second reading stage.(See that division here.)