The federal government is pushing ahead with its planned emissions trading scheme by moving to engage experts to run complex auctions of millions of carbon emissions permits each year, despite legislation for the ETS being defeated in the Senate last week for the second time.
The Department of Climate Change called on Friday for tenders from companies wanting to design, operate and manage the auctions, Fairfax newspapers say.
The department also said it will issue a separate tender request early next year for settlement services for the hundreds of financial transactions expected to be generated by the auctions under the scheme.
The auctions cannot start unless the legislation for the scheme passes the Senate, which seems unlikely after the Coalition dumped its support for emissions trading policy under its new leader, Tony Abbott.
The government has said it will reintroduce the bills a third time when Parliament resumes in February.
The auctions are the scheme's central mechanism for putting a price on carbon emissions.
The scheme would require businesses which emit large volumes of greenhouse gases to buy enough permits each year to cover those emissions.
After an initial year in which the permits would be sold at a fixed price of $10 per tonne of carbon, the government would auction permits with the carbon price being set by these sales.
The department told potential bidders for the job of running the auctions they had until February to lodge their tenders. It plans to enter a contract from the end of May but may alter this timetable.
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