Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment) Share this | Hansard source

We will not accept these amendments on this basis. There is no consultation. The reason they were rejected in the original bill was a lack of consultation with industry in particular. If you want a bill like this to succeed, the member for Melbourne should perhaps detail to the House how much industry consultation he has actually performed before moving this amendment.

I think it is incumbent on people when they move amendments that they do it on a basis of fact and engagement with stakeholders so that there is some substantial effort and understanding of what they are trying to achieve. I am not saying that crown-use provisions are bad. But as was outlined when the bill was originally introduced by the former government, there had not been enough stakeholder engagement. There was a negative reaction from industry that needed to be overcome. Through the processes of time, we will look at crown-use provisions into the future, but not just now.

This is rushed. The first I heard about an intention to move these amendments was here tonight when I walked into the chamber. I would have thought that if you wanted to get an amendment like this up, rather than do a bit of grandstanding, one might have come and seen the government and put forward the case, the need and the reason. So we will be rejecting these amendments.

Question negatived.

Bill agreed to.

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