Woods Megan; Brown SimeonHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): Thank you Madam Chair. I'm happy to take a call on clause 2 of this bill which is the commencement clause. Now there are some pieces of legislation where the commencement clause is more material than others and this is one of those pieces of legislation because what this amendment in the Land Transport (Clean Vehicle Standard) Amendment Bill is doing is bringing forward the dates on which the Minister can make changes to the substance of the Act by regulation rather than it being prescribed in the legislation. So as the original legislation stands those emission standards for 2025 2026 and 2027 are prescribed in the Act but the amendment we have and the commencement clause is pulling all of that forward so that the Minister can set those by regulation. One of the things that I'm keen to understand from the Minister is in terms of how the phasing and the dates are going to work because of course under the original Act where we had it prescribed in the legislation the ratcheting of the emissions targets was embedded within the principal legislation. Now that that is moving to having the Minister being able to change that by regulation will he also be putting in that ratcheting of the emissions targets? I think that it is absolutely critical that we understand that in terms of the way in which the dates work. The other question I have for the Minister is this. Of course dates matter when it comes to this stuff because what we have is a series of pieces of legislation that are around reducing our emissions and how we reduce our emissions. These correspond to emissions budgets and emissions reduction plans (ERPs). Emissions reduction plan 1 I imagine won't be impacted at all by any changes here but certainly there is the potential for emissions reduction plan 2 and emissions reduction plan 3 to be impacted by any changes by regulation coming forward—as the commencement clause is allowing it to do—and having an impact on what the transport emissions targets look like within ERP 2 and ERP 3. I'd like to know from the Minister what in terms of tonnes of carbon dioxide the impact could possibly be and what he will be doing to mitigate that in terms of making sure of the phasing in terms of the commencement of the legislation and the timing of those emissions reduction plans and how they sit together. The other thing that I think the committee would be keen to hear from the Minister on in terms of the commencement date of this legislation of course is that we have had some suggestions for amendments from the parliamentary commissioner which actually are around changing dates. Obviously everything in this bill is really around the amendments that will be made to section 175A of the principal legislation but the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in his letter to the Minister that was sent this week—as there was no opportunity for there to be submissions at select committee the parliamentary commissioner had set out for the Minister some suggestions which we really have yet to hear the Minister respond to. I reiterate that this is an Officer of Parliament who is offering advice to the Minister. I think it is disrespectful of this House for the Minister to not respond in a substantive way to substantive suggestions that have been made by an Officer of Parliament on a piece of legislation that is going through under urgency. So I think that it is simply untenable for the Minister to continue to not respond to these sensible suggestions. He doesn't have to agree with them; obviously that is his prerogative—he is the Minister. But what is untenable is that we have a Minister who is either unwilling or unable to respond to the complexity of the suggestions that have been made by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. There are many but the one I'd draw the Minister's attention to as we're debating the commencement clause is the one around shifting the dates. So he's made that one in terms of what could be replaced under not later than June 2025". There are three quite detailed and specific questions I've set out for the Minister in regard to commencement and I look forward to hearing some substance from the Minister on that. Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Transport): I thank the member for the questions. This is relation to the commencement of the legislation. The member is asking questions which are more in relation to the review. The Act requires a review to be taken and that review is under way. In relation to the point in relation to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment's letter: effectively those questions also relate to the review and the certainty. This Government is committed to a clean-car standard and that is a point we have made consistently. We are undertaking a review of it in line with what the legislation requires. The Act prescribes the matters that must be considered. But those are all questions for the review; they're not questions which relate to the bill and the clause. This clause is simply to do with the commencement of the bill which will start on 1 July and in relation to the cost recovery from 1 July 2025. That is what this clause is about. Those questions are relating to wider policy considerations which are being dealt with through an appropriate process."