Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities) Share this | Hansard source

I will acknowledge the interjection because it is a classic. The interjection is: 'We expect you to do your job.' The problem is that they were just telling me a minute ago they did not want me to do my job and they wanted me to simply accept that when Queensland stops short I should jump ahead, make a decision and not fulfil my responsibilities under national environmental law. I am not prepared to do that.

The company is working constructively with us. The relationship with the Queensland government will, I think, be on a better footing because of the amendments we made to the bilateral agreement last week. There may well be times in the future when Queensland decides, perhaps for good reason, that the expertise to provide an assessment is actually better done at a Commonwealth level. That happened, for example, on some of the coal seam gas decisions because we had the availability and expertise of Geoscience Australia. From time to time, even under a bilateral agreement, a state government says, 'Look, we actually think this is something that you would be better placed to do.' So there will be occasions when there is still duplication, but it will occur in a cooperative way and with plenty of notice, rather than us only finding out at the end of the process that the job is in fact not yet finished.

Having dealt with the issues that are in front of us in this debate—but which are a bit of a stretch when it comes to the bill—I say that the bill itself deals with issues that have had bipartisan support for significant periods of time. I am pleased that there has been a constructive debate and pleased and proud to be here to thank everybody for their contributions. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation for the bill announced.

See this speech in context