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(…) The Fuel Tax Credits Scheme removes the incidence of excise and excise-equivalent customs duties from the costs of some fuels (including diesel) used in business activities, including specified activities in agriculture, fishing, and forestry (sections 3.4.2 and 4.3.2.3).

The agricultural sector receives no market price support. Budget financed programmes are mainly used for natural resource and environmental management, in particular water. (…)

Innovation Grants, ranging between $A 250,000 and $A 1.5 million, provide tools to implement sustainable practices, reduce farm costs and build productivity through the development and adoption of innovative practices across agriculture, fishing, aquaculture and farm forestry. As of March 2014, 31 projects worth up to $A 21.2 million had received funding.

(…) In 2011/12 virtually all industry-specific budgetary assistance (34.9% of total sectoral assistance) was delivered through the Coal Sector Jobs Package (CSJP), with lower amounts channelled through the National Low Emissions Coal Initiative. The CSJP provided a total of $A 218.8 million to only the most emissions intensive mines in 2011/12 as a prepayment to ease their transition to the introduction of the carbon price mechanism (section 4.3.2) in 2012/13. No CSJP funding was provided in 2012/13. Eligible mines received a second CSJP payment in 2013/14 with payments totalling $A 219.3 million. Due to budgetary savings and the repeal of the carbon price mechanism, no further CSJP funding is available.

During the review period Australia, inter alia, reviewed its future energy needs, passed a comprehensive package of clean energy proposals, including a carbon price mechanism (repealed in 2014), and set mandatory minimum efficiency performance and energy rating label requirements. A new coherent and integrated approach to energy policy is under consideration. (...)

During the period under review Australia reviewed, inter alia, its future energy needs, passed a comprehensive package of clean energy proposals including a 3carbon price mechanism (repealed in 2014), and set mandatory minimum efficiency performance and energy rating label requirements. A new coherent and integrated approach to energy policy is under consideration. (...)

(…) During the review period competition-related legislative amendments included: the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (National Broadband Network Measures—Access Arrangements) Act 2011; the Carbon Credits (Consequential Amendments) Act 2011; the Clean Energy (Consequential Amendments) Act 2011; the Clean Energy Legislation (Carbon Tax Repeal) Act 2014; and the Australian Energy Market Amendment (National Energy Retail Law) Act 2011. (...)

During the review period, efforts to update the energy policy framework were undertaken. A comprehensive draft Energy White Paper (EWP)2 was published in November 2011, seven years after the release of the previous EWP. The draft energy policy provided an assessment of future energy needs to 2030 and set out a policy framework to guide the further development of the sector. The draft EWP2 set three clear policy objectives: the provision of accessible, reliable and competitively priced energy for all Australians; enhancement of domestic and export growth potential; and the delivery of clean and sustainable energy. It also identified four priority areas for future action and outlines a set of initiatives to advance this agenda: strengthening the resilience of the energy policy framework; reinvigorating the energy market reform agenda; developing critical energy resources – particularly its gas resources; and accelerating clean energy outcomes. The final EWP2 was to be published in late 2012. However, the current Government committed to develop a new Energy White Paper in light of changed market conditions and policy. As at December 2014, an Energy White Paper was under development. The new Energy White Paper is to set out a coherent and integrated approach to energy policy to reduce cost pressures on households and businesses, improve Australia's international competitiveness and grow its export base and economic prosperity. An Energy Green Paper, the precursor to the Energy White Paper, was released for public consultation in September 2014. Consultation closed in early November 2014 and submissions are being used to inform the development of the Energy White Paper.

A July 2011 comprehensive package of clean energy proposals, the Securing a Clean Energy Future – the Australian Government's Climate Change Plan, aimed to consolidate existing policies and strengthen them with new initiatives contained in four key pillars: the introduction of a carbon price mechanism (repealed on 1 July 2014, section 3.4.1.3) [70]; the update of renewable energy (section 4.3.2.1.3); the improvement in energy efficiency; and action on the land. The Plan is accompanied by proposals to provide significant levels of financial support for innovation in clean energy technologies, including through: investments in renewable energy; the creation of a new $A 10 billion commercially oriented Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC), which would invest in renewable energy, low‐emission, and energy‐efficient technologies ; as well as the creation of a new institution, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), which would separately administer $A 3.2 billion in government funding for existing research and development, demonstration and commercialisation of renewable energy. Legislation to establish ARENA was passed in 2011 and the Agency commenced operations on 1 July 2012. ARENA's funding was reduced and re-profiled as an element of the legislation repealing the carbon price mechanism, and further savings were announced in the 2014 Budget, along with a proposal introduced to the Australian Parliament to close the Agency, and move management of ARENA commitments and functions to the Department of Industry. Furthermore, many of the measures under the Plan were transposed into Commonwealth law through a Clean Energy Legislative Package, passed on 8 November 2011. According to the OECD, the scale of Australia's energy policy ambitions is enormous and very costly even for a resource-rich nation (section 4.3.2.1.3).

[70] Repealing the carbon tax and the Clean Energy Package was designed to: reduce the cost of living; lower retail electricity by around 9% and retail gas prices by around 7%; boost Australia's economic growth, increase jobs and enhance Australia's international competitiveness by removing an unnecessary tax; reduce ongoing annual compliance costs for around 370 liable entities by almost $A 90 million per annum; and remove over 1,000 pages of primary and subordinate legislation. For more details on the impact of this repeal, see Department of the Environment online information. Viewed at: http://www.environment.gov.au/topics/cleaner-environment/clean-air/repealing-carbon-tax.

(…) The Fuel Tax Credits Scheme remains in place to reduce or remove the incidence of excise and excise equivalent customs duty, and covers liquid, gaseous and blended fuels for business use including for: all off-road business activities, including for electricity generation and aviation fuel, prior to the repeal of the carbon tax in July 2014, where the business was in the Opt-In Scheme. [114] (...)

[114] The Opt-in Scheme under the Clean Energy Act 2011 allowed liable entities and large users of liquid petroleum fuels (e.g. diesel, petrol, aviation fuel) to take on an emissions liability for that fuel under the carbon pricing mechanism rather than paying the equivalent carbon price "indirectly" through the fuel tax or excise systems (Clean Energy Regulator online information. Viewed at: http://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/Carbon-Pricing-Mechanism/About-the-Mechanism/liquid-fuel-opt-in-scheme/Pages/default.aspx; and Energetcis online information. Viewed at: http://www.energetics.com.au/insights/latest-news/climate-change-matters/opt-in-scheme-for-liquid-fuels-regulations-finalis).