Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I just have to reiterate that this bill is not about everything to do with climate change and everything to do with the environment. It's very specifically about legislating to show that we will abide by the obligations that we have entered into as a nation under the London protocol, and the amendments to the London protocol. I understand that members wish to move amendments, and we will of course consider those amendments as the bill goes to the other place. But we had an inquiry into the bill in December; it's now August, and we're getting amendments 24 hours before the bill is set to be decided. It is very difficult to change the whole legislative program because you want to delay something that has been on our books and under discussion for well over half a year. We all need to respect that there is a lot of business to get through in this place. We will continue to listen to you, to work with you, to brief you and to consider where we can adopt any of these measures, but we certainly can't agree to further delays to concluding the business on this legislation as has been suggested.

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