Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I did hear those reports. I do not have a detailed brief on the three issues you raised. I will attempt to assist you insofar as I can. The first point I would make is that, as you know, in relation to a great many matters of this sort the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth and of Minister Garrett is as outlined under the EPBC Act, an act with which you are well familiar. It is in relation to events which have a national environmental significance that the provisions of the EPBC Act are triggered and, if so, then Minister Garrett, as the minister responsible, has a statutory discretion to exercise in relation to certain decisions.

I am not aware—I have not been advised—of the Commonwealth having any such jurisdiction in relation to this issue, but I will undertake to obtain information as far as I am able to. That also relates to the translocation option which you raised, but again I make the point that these may well be decisions which are not necessarily within the purview of the Commonwealth. Finally, and again in relation to the grasslands issue, I am not aware on what basis you assert Minister Garrett has authority over that issue.