Six MPs and Senators raised the biofuel issue in the Coalition party room meeting in Canberra last week, three of those openly called for a mandated 10 per cent biofuel component in all petrol, reported Farm Weekly (22/6/2006, p.24).
Barnaby Joyce set to introduce own bill in August: Both Liberal and National MPs supported the call, with Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce now planning to introduce a private member’s bill to force the issue during the next parliamentary sitting in August, pending support for a resolution to go to the Queensland branch of his party next month.
Backbenchers want incentives for ethanol push: Amid the concerns of the Coalition backbench is:
* The slowness of oil companies to offer ethanol blends to consumers.
* Failure of oil companies to pass on the price savings of ethanol to consumers, thus bolstering profits by marketing it at similar prices to petrol: and
* The risk of undermining the fledgling domestic industry by offering cheaper imported ethanol the same tax concessions.
Joyce: law-law may be better than jaw-jaw: Senator Joyce, said last week that The Nationals had regularly lobbied the petroleum industry towards a 10pc mandate. "If it can’t be achieved through communication, it may very well be achieved through legislation," he said.
Farm Weekly, 22/6/2006, p. 24
Source: Erisk Net