PM agrees with stance on climate document

DECEMBER 1, 2015: PROMPT action was needed yesterday to ensure that a communique which would cost jobs and harm rural and resources sectors was not signed during the Paris conference.I contacted both Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Environment Minister Greg Hunt directly because the communique could have spelt the end of the diesel fuel rebate which protects off-road users such as farmers and mining companies.This document referenced the International Monetary Fund which, unlike every other sensible body, regards the diesel fuel rebate as a subsidy.It has been consistently ruled by the Department of Treasury, the Productivity Commission and world trade organisations that this is not a subsidy.The diesel fuel rebate protects off-road users from paying a tax to fund roads when they aren’t using those roads.The IMF are over the top on this, and do not accept that it’s a subsidy. In fact they are a body that is so over the top, they believe that if a government does not apply a tax on burning coal because of the impact it has on climate, then that is a subsidy too.If this communique had been signed by the Prime Minister in Paris, it would have opened the door for calls to get rid of the diesel fuel rebate, and opened the door for the reintroduction of a carbon tax on the mining industry.The loss of that rebate would add millions of dollars to the operating costs of mining companies, and thousands of dollars to farmers, and this would cost jobs at a time when we can least afford any more imposts.I was alerted to the issue yesterday morning in my role as chair of the Industry, Innovation, Science and Resources backbench committee.I sounded out these committee members and we unanimously agreed we would oppose it and express our concerns, because this has not gone to the Party Room, and was a breach of the agreement we had when the Paris conference was discussed.I thank the Prime Minister for his prompt response on this, as he contacted me directly within a few hours to say this communique would not be signed.He agreed with me that the reference to the IMF was completely gratuitous.