Senator ALLISON (5:51 PM) —I move Democrat amendment No. 6:

Amendment No. 6 goes to the same question. We would argue that not only should the penalty period be brought forward in which one's penalty can be repaid or refunded if compliance is achieved but also there should be some sort of discount on that refund. If you paid the penalty, having not complied within that 12-month period, but you do comply, say, in the following 12 months, there should be some sort of penalty applied. We suggest 50 per cent on that penalty so that you do not get the full amount back. What we are seeing is really an advantage given to those electricity retailers and wholesalers who put off this commitment.

We do not think that is a level playing field for those retailers and wholesalers who are already planning their wind farms, who are already planning to stitch up contracts and who are getting themselves organised. They are the ones who will effectively be penalised because they will have competitors who are not required to comply for up to two years and who will still not be penalised financially. So we think that 50 per cent is a reasonable figure to choose and that this would act as an appropriate disincentive for putting off what is going to be inevitable. Again, it is to make sure that the industry is properly supported and that we do not end up with a very slow take-up rate in the early years and find ourselves unable to achieve the target in the last few years of that decade. We think it is a sensible measure and one that ought to be supported. To some extent it relies on the previous amendment, and I must say that it is disappointing that Labor has chosen not to go with this one. I think we could have persuaded the government to agree to this if there had been support from the ALP. But clearly there is not. Again, the reason for putting up this amendment is that it would benefit the real renewables industries that we have all been talking about—solar and wind—and the more expensive end of that spectrum. Those are industries that need certainty, that need time lines and that need proper targets. It does not help if the retailers and wholesalers can ignore their responsibilities and simply delay their obligations to meet those figures.