Explanatory Statement
Issued by the authority of the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy
Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Act 2011
Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Amendment (Identity Evidence) Regulations 2025
Legislative Authority
The Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Act 2011 (ANREU Act) provides for the continuation of the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units and allows the Clean Energy Regulator (Regulator) to open Registry accounts in the name of a person.
Section 97 of the ANREU Act provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed, or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act. Paragraph 10(6)(c) of the ANREU Act allows for regulations to be made making provision for or in relation to the information that must accompany a request to open a Registry account. Subsection 11(1) of the ANREU Act provides that regulations may prescribe identification procedures that the Regulator must carry out before opening a Registry account in the name of a person.
Purpose
The purpose of the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Amendment (Identity Evidence) Regulations 2025 (the Amendment Regulations) is to amend the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Regulations 2011 (ANREU Regulations).
The ANREU Regulations set out the requirements which persons applying to open a Registry account must provide to verify their identity to the Regulator. The Amendment Regulations amend the ANREU Regulations to adopt a ‘tell us once’ approach by streamlining the identification requirements for applicants who have had their identity previously verified by the Regulator. These amendments remove the requirement to provide identity evidence if the Regulator had previously verified the applicant’s identity. For new applicants who are required to provide identity evidence and elect to provide a certified copy of a required document, the Amendment Regulations also remove the requirement that the document be current. This would allow, for example, an individual to provide a certified copy of a recently expired Australian passport. What is recent is whatever the issuing agency determines as being valid for evidence of identity verification. For example, Australian passports can be verified through the Document Verification Service (DVS) for up to two years following their expiry date.
Impact and Effect
The Office of Impact Analysis has advised that an Impact Analysis is not required (Reference OIA24-06408) as the amendments are unlikely to have more than a minor impact as they relate to a minor administration processing change.
Consultation
Public consultation was undertaken by the Regulator in November 2024, with 15 submissions received from the public. The responses supported the amendments, with several commenting that changes to streamline and improve efficiency of application processes would be beneficial to applicants. No changes were made to the proposed approach following the consultation as respondents were supportive.
Details/Operation
Details of the Amendment Regulations are set out in Attachment A.
Exemption from Sunsetting
The Amendment Regulations are subject to the disallowance process under section 42 of the Legislation Act 2003 (Legislation Act) and the sunsetting regime set out in Part 4 of Chapter 3 of the Legislation Act. However, section 48A of the Legislation Act has the effect that, because the Amendment Regulations only amends another instrument, if it is not disallowed it will be automatically repealed at the end of the disallowance period. Once repealed, the sunsetting regime has no practical effect on the Amendment Regulations.
The Regulations to be amended by this instrument is exempt from sunsetting in accordance with table item 8A in section 12 of the Legislation (Exemptions and Other Matters) Regulation 2015, which specifies that sunsetting requirements do not apply to a regulation made under the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Act 2011. This item was added in 2016 by the Legislation (Exemptions and Other Matters) Amendment (Sunsetting and Disallowance Exemptions) Regulation 2016 to align with the fact that the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Regulations provide a legal framework for domestic and international transfer of Australian carbon credit units issued, and for enforcing the obligations under the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Since the primary purpose of the Regulations is to give effect to Australia’s long-term and ongoing international obligations, it was deemed appropriate that the Regulations are exempted from sunsetting.
Other
The Amendment Regulations are compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared under section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011. A full statement of compatibility is set out in Attachment B
Attachment A
Details of the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Amendment (Identity Evidence) Regulations 2025
Section 1 – Name
This section provides that the name of the instrument is the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Amendment (Identity Evidence) Regulations 2025.
Section 2 – Commencement
This section provides for the Amendment Regulations to commence on 1 December 2025.
Section 3 – Authority
This section provides that the Amendment Regulations are made under the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Act 2011 (ANREU Act).
In particular, see sections 10(6), 11(1) and 97 of the ANREU Act.
Section 4 – Schedules
This section provides that each instrument that is specified in a Schedule to the instrument is amended or repealed as set out in the applicable items in the Schedule concerned, and any other item in a Schedule to the instrument has effect according to its terms.
Schedule 1 – Amendments
Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Regulations 2011
Item 1 – Subregulation 14(2)
This item repeals and substitutes subregulation 14(2) to remove the requirement that if a person provides a document as identity evidence to the Regulator under this Division 2.2, it must be current. This would allow a person to provide a recently expired document as identity evidence. Other requirements remain unchanged.
Item 2 – Regulation 17
This item repeals and substitutes regulation 17 to provide that a person who makes a request to open a Registry account under regulation 9, is not required to give the Regulator identity evidence in accordance with regulation 15, if the requesting person, an associated person or a nominated authorised representative of the requesting person, had already had their identity verified previously under a biodiversity law or climate change law (within the meaning of the Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011). This also includes situations where a person’s identity had already been verified under the ANREU Regulations previously. The previous requirement that the identity document be current is also removed.
Item 3 – Paragraph 31(2)(a)
This item repeals and substitutes paragraph 31(2)(a) to allow the Regulator to give a nominated authorised representative access to a Registry account if their identity had previously been verified under a biodiversity law or a climate change law (within the meaning of the Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011).
Item 4 – Subregulation 32(2)
This item amends subregulation 32(2) to include a reference to new subregulation (2A).
Item 5 – After subregulation 32(2)
This item inserts new subregulation 32(2A) to provide an exception to subregulation (2) such that it does not apply if the identity of the individual nominated to be the authorised representative has previously been verified by the Regulator under a biodiversity law or climate change law (within the meaning of the Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011).
In practice, this means that the nominated authorised representative will not have to provide identity evidence every time a request is made to allow them access to a Registry account.
Item 6 – At the end of Part 6
This item adds regulation 73 at the end of Part 6 of the Regulations (Application and transitional provisions) to provide that the amendments made by these Amendment Regulations apply in relation to requests to open a Registry account or to remove or add an authorised representative made on or after the commencement of these Amendment Regulations (1 December 2025).
Item 7 – Item 2 of Schedule 1
This item amends Item 2 of Schedule 1 to remove the reference to the word ‘current’. Previously, a ‘current’ passport issued by the Commonwealth is a Category A document for identifying Australian citizens or residents. This amendment will allow a person to provide a recently expired passport issued by the Commonwealth as an identity document for the purpose of the ANREU Regulations.
ATTACHMENT B
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011
Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Amendment (Identity Evidence) Regulations 2025
This Legislative Instrument is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.
Overview of the Legislative Instrument
Section 97 of the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Act 2011 (ANREU Act) empowers the Governor General to make regulations prescribing matters required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed; or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.
The Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Regulations 2011 (ANREU Regulations) made under the ANREU Act require persons applying for an Australian National Registry of Emissions Units account (Registry account) to provide certain identity evidence.
This Legislative Instrument amends the ANREU Regulations towards a ‘tell us once’ approach to remove the requirement to provide identity evidence if the Clean Energy Regulator (the Regulator) had previously verified the applicant’s identity. For new applicants who are required to provide identity evidence and elect to provide a certified copy of a required document, this Legislative Instrument also removes the requirement that the document be current. This would allow, for example, an individual to provide a certified copy of a recently expired Australian passport.
Human rights implications
This Legislative Instrument may engage the right to privacy under Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). No other applicable rights or freedoms are engaged.
The right to privacy – Article 17 of the ICCPR
Article 17 of the ICCPR prohibits unlawful or arbitrary interferences with a person’s privacy, family, home and correspondence. The right to privacy includes respect for informational privacy, including the storing, using, and sharing personal information, and the right to control the dissemination of this information.
The rights contained in Article 17 of the ICCPR may be limited in specified circumstances when the limitation is established in a non-arbitrary manner and when authorised by law. For a limitation on a right to be considered non-arbitrary, the interference must be for a reason consistent with the objectives of the ICCPR and reasonable, necessary and proportionate.
The ANREU Regulations require the collection and use of information and documents, which include personal information, by the Regulator, in order to verify the identity of applicants and associated persons. The amendments to the ANREU Regulations by this Legislative Instrument reduce the collection and use of personal information and documents by the Regulator where a person’s identity has already been previously verified by the Regulator.
Conclusion
This Legislative Instrument is compatible with human rights because it does not purport to further limit human rights engaged by the existing ANREU Regulations.
The Hon Josh Wilson MP
Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy