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

I will take these sequentially. On the first point, maybe I have not made myself as clear as I could have, Senator Xenophon, about the EPBC Act provisions. As I understand it, Minister Garrett is seized of a statutory obligation and has certain statutory powers pursuant to that act once a referral is made. Once he is seized of those powers he can then impose conditions that are contemplated by those powers under the act. I do not have anything in front of me which limits the audited water savings to the issue of listed EPBC species or other such limitations. If I am wrong on that, I can correct that at a later stage, but nothing before me suggests, nor intuitively does it make sense, that once he has those powers to make those decisions and make those conditions he would have to constrain them in the way you seem to be suggesting. That is the first point.

On the second point in relation to the independent audited reports of water savings, what I read out to you simply makes that statement. I am sorry, Senator Xenophon, but I have lost my train of thought.