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

This is Mr Turnbull’s act, Senator Fisher. Let us remember that the authority is not just the chair and part-time members. I am sure Senator Siewert is aware of that. This is quite a large organisation. We are talking in the hundreds, Senator Siewert, because of the work that needs to be undertaken. So let us understand: you essentially have another government agency which is responsible for the very significant task of preparing the Basin Plan. I think it is important to recognise the different roles and responsibilities between the authority members and the chair. We do think the chief executive is a full-time job. We do believe these other positions are part-time positions.

I would also make the point that there are arrangements, if not in the act then in the IGA, about part-time membership agreements between states and the Commonwealth about who appoints which. There might be a view from the states if, for example, the Commonwealth in its discretion—if that is what is being proposed here—appointed some of those appointments as full time and some as part time. We might then have to have a negotiation about which appointments should be part time and which should be full time. Our preference is for the model that the IGA sets out—so the act as amended by the bill—which is for a part-time chair, a full-time chief executive, who has already been appointed, and part-time authority members which are appointed via this agreed arrangement with the states in terms of who is appointed. My suggestion to the opposition is that they consider those different roles and responsibilities as well as the agreement that we have reached with the states about the balance of how those appointments would be progressed. For those reasons, we do not support the amendment.