O'Connor Greg; Edmonds Barbara; Wood MichaelLAND TRANSPORT (CLEAN VEHICLES) AMENDMENT BILL (NO 2) In CommitteePart 1 Amendments to Land Transport Act 1988CHAIRPERSON (Greg O'Connor): Members the House is in committee on the Land Transport (Clean Vehicles) Amendment Bill (No 2). Members we come first to Part 1. This is the debate on clauses 3 to 8 and the Schedule Amendments to Land Transport Act 1988". The question is that Part 1 stand part. I might just let members know that one advantage of having this bill heard consecutively is the ability to have more wide-ranging speeches is met. When we come of course to the committee stage we will be focusing on those aspects of the bill just to let the members know.BARBARA EDMONDS (Junior Whip—Labour): Point of order. I seek leave to debate all parts as one.CHAIRPERSON (Greg O'Connor): Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is none—there is objection. The question is that Part 1 stand part.Hon MICHAEL WOOD (Minister of Transport): I'm very pleased to speak briefly in the debate on Part 1 in the committee stage of this piece of legislation. The bill as members of the committee will see is a relatively short one and Part 1 is the substantial part of the bill that makes the key changes that the Government has brought to the House through this piece of legislation.I refer members first to clauses 5 to 7. This is a piece of the legislation which deals with the issue around motorcycles and mopeds. The main way that it deals with this issue is that the amendments replace references to light vehicles with references to type A or type B vehicles. This is quite an important point for members to be aware of. The existing legislation does not require motorcycles and mopeds to pay charges or make them eligible to receive rebates under the legislative design. They're not covered by that part of the scheme but what it does require them to do is to set up carbon dioxide accounts. So effectively what this piece of the legislation does is remove that requirement to set up carbon dioxide accounts so that there are no requirements for importers of motorcycles or mopeds under the legislation. And that's because those two terms are defined differently in the legislation. Type A and type B vehicles do refer to cars whereas the broader term of "light vehicles" can be defined as to mean motorcycles and mopeds. And that is not the intention of the legislation to put any requirements on importers of those kinds of vehicles. So that's a simple clarification.Clause 8 which amends Schedule 1 of the principal Act is important in terms of putting in transitional provisions that have the effect of deferring until 1 June 2023 the date on which charges for vehicles imported by category 2 light vehicle importers between 1 January and the 31 May are payable; similarly the date from which a light vehicle importer may transfer carbon dioxide credits—their carbon dioxide account—to the account of another light vehicle importer. It's just important to explain clearly what that means. This piece of legislation the parent piece of legislation is about putting an obligation on importers to account for the carbon dioxide emissions of vehicles that come in. And then there is a carbon dioxide standard which they are asked to meet. Now it's not a standard by which they cannot import vehicles if they are above that standard. It's effectively a market mechanism. For category 1 importers they will generally be the bigger importers who for the most part are importing new vehicles. They'll operate that on an annual basis so they'll look at all of the vehicles that they import over the course of a year—some may be above the carbon dioxide standard; some may be below the carbon dioxide standard. The requirement is that at an average level they meet that carbon dioxide standard. If they've imported overall a fleet that is above that carbon dioxide standard then a fee will apply. If they're below that standard then they'll have a rebate which they can effectively trade with other importers. That has the effect of effectively using a market mechanism to incentivise importers to bring in vehicles that are cleaner and will drive down emissions. And that's been very effective internationally. Most countries already have it.So for those category 1 importers who will probably import the majority of vehicles including most new vehicles they're entirely unaffected by this bill—that's done on an annual basis; they'll effectively look at what they've imported over the course of the year at the end of 2023; nothing changes for them. It's the category 2 importers which tend to be the smaller importers and tend to be more weighted towards used importers who will be required to comply with this scheme and the carbon dioxide standard on a consignment by consignment basis. And it's the engagement we've had with the industry there which suggests that it will be potentially more challenging than would be ideal for them to do that in the first half of this year. A little bit more time is needed for them to be able to do that. In that interim period under the changes that are proposed here in clause 8 the obligations are still there. So they will still effectively on a consignment by consignment basis be accruing credits or charges on those vehicles—and I do note there was a comment earlier in the debate to say that I think from Mr Court importers would not know what rebates or charges they were incurring. That is not correct; it will be very clear. It is set out in the legislation what the carbon dioxide level is and what the charges are that are applied. They will be aware of what they are incurring.But effectively under this change in Part 1 the obligation to then pay or the ability to use rebates to enter them into the system and to trade with other importers it's only that bit which gets deferred until 1 June. So in terms of the totality of the scheme the impact of the scheme the emissions abatement function of the scheme nothing actually changes. It's simply the point moving from 1 January into June at which the obligation to either pay—if they've brought in vehicles over the carbon dioxide level or the ability to engage in trading with rebates—it's just that that bit gets delayed until 1 June under this change in Part 1. So those are the two substantive that are made in the bill that are reflected in Part 1 and I'm very happy to take any questions from the committee about them."