Explanatory Statement
Issued by the authority of the Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy
Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011
Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Amendment (Identity Evidence) Rule 2025
Legislative Authority
The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011 (CFI Act) establishes the Australian Carbon Credit Unit Scheme (the ACCU Scheme) for the registration of projects that remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and projects to avoid emissions of greenhouse gases. Paragraph 23(1)(c) of the CFI Act provides that an application to the Clean Energy Regulator (Regulator) for the declaration of an eligible offsets project must include information as specified in the legislative rules.
Section 308 of the CFI Act provides that the Minister may make rules 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. Amongst other things, the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Rule 2015 (CFI Rule) specifies identity evidence that must be included in an application for declaration of an eligible offsets project. This instrument purports to amend the CFI Rule.
Subsection 33(3) of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 provides that where an Act confers a power to make a legislative instrument, the power shall be construed as including a power exercisable in the like manner and subject to the like conditions (if any) to repeal, rescind, revoke, amend, or vary any such instrument.
Purpose
The CFI Rule sets out the evidentiary requirements which persons applying to participate in the ACCU Scheme must provide to verify their identity to the Regulator. The Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Amendment (Identity Evidence) Rule 2025 (Amendment Rule) amends the CFI Rule 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 already verified the applicant’s identity previously. For new applicants who are required to provide identity evidence and elect to provide a certified copy of a required document, the Amendment Rule 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 the changes are limited to 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 Rule are set out in Attachment A.
Exemption from Sunsetting
The Amendment Rule is subject to the disallowance process under section 42 of the Legislation Act 2003 and the sunsetting regime set out in Part 4 of Chapter 3 of the Legislation Act 2003. However, section 48A of the Legislation Act has the effect that, because the Amendment Rule 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 Rule.
Other
The Amendment Rule is 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
The Amendment Rule is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislation Act 2003.
Attachment A
Details of the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Amendment (Identity Evidence) Rule 2025
Section 1 – Name
This section provides that the name of the instrument is the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Amendment (Identity Evidence) Rule 2025.
Section 2 – Commencement
This section provides for the Rule to commence on 1 December 2025.
Section 3 – Authority
This section provides that the Rule is made under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011.
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
Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Rule 2015
Item 1 – Paragraph 16(2)(b)
This item amends the second last paragraph of subsection 16(2) to substitute the semicolon with a full stop, as the following paragraph is to be repealed by item 2 below.
Item 2 – Paragraph 16(2)(c)
This item repeals paragraph 16(2)(c) which previously exempted that an application be accompanied by identity evidence that is current. This paragraph is repealed to reflect the change in approach to no longer require current identity evidence.
Item 3 – Subsections 16(3) and (4)
This item repeals subsections 16(3) and (4) and substitutes a new subsection 16(3) to provide that an application for the declaration of an eligible offsets project is not required to be accompanied by identity evidence for a person if that person’s identity has previously been verified by the Regulator based on identity evidence provided under a biodiversity law or climate change law or biodiversity law (within the meaning of the Clean Energy Regulator Act 2011). This includes where a person’s identity had already been verified under the Australian National Registry of Emissions Units Regulations 2011 or the CFI Rule previously.
Item 4 – Subsection 17(1)
This item amends subsection 17(1) to omit the requirement that if a certified copy of a document is provided as identity evidence under section 16, it no longer needs to be current.
Item 5 – Subsection 18(2)
This item repeals and substitutes subsection 18(2) to clarify that if an application for the declaration of an offsets project must be accompanied by identity evidence in respect of an individual who is an Aboriginal person or a Torres Strait Islander who does not have all of that identity evidence, the application can be accompanied by a reference from an authorised referee instead. If the authorised referee verifies the individual’s identity, it would be taken to satisfy the requirement (under section 16 of the Rule) that the application be accompanied by identity evidence.
Item 6 – At the end of Part 29
This item adds rule 128 to the end of Part 29 to provide that the amendments made by this Rule apply in relation to applications made on or after the commencement of this Amendment Rule (1 December 2025).
Item 7 – Paragraph 1(b) of Schedule 1
This item amends Item 1(b) 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 (up to 2 years) expired passport issued by the Commonwealth as an identity document for the purpose of the CFI Rule.
ATTACHMENT B
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011
Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Amendment (Identity Evidence) Rule 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
The purpose of this Legislative Instrument (Amendment Rule) is to amend the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Rule 2015 (CFI Rule) to adopt a ‘tell us once’ approach by streamlining the identification requirements for applicants who have had their identity previously verified by the Clean Energy Regulator (the Regulator).
The CFI Rule requires applications for the declaration of an eligible offset project to provide identity evidence for themselves and certain other persons. These amendments remove the requirement for an application to include identity evidence for a person if the Regulator had previously verified that person’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 Rule 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 relevant Convention and reasonable, necessary and proportionate in the context of a legitimate objective.
The CFI Rule requires the collection and use of information and documents (including personal information) by the Regulator, to verify the identity of applicants and related persons. The amendments to the CFI Rule made by this Legislative Instrument reduce the collection and use of personal information and documents by the Regulator where a person’s identity had 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 CFI Rule.
The Hon. Josh Wilson MP
Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy