Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Water Resources and Conservation) Share this | Hansard source

Further to the point the minister made about the amendments not changing the basis of the consideration, the minister may well then be accepting of the amendment going forward, because the amendment that we are putting forward to delete the provision in the bill clearly removes the uncertainty that currently exists around the definition of those particular categories of climate change and new knowledge. The minister would be very well aware that, as I said previously, discussions were to take place before a final decision was arrived at on how those two components would be treated. Indeed, by having this paragraph in the bill, it takes away any ability for that consultation with industry in determining those definitions and the very important impact of the compensatory ability surrounding the differing definitions that might be put forward. So I think that, in the interests of certainty and allowing the industry to be consulted on the definitions around those terms and the resulting compensatory activities, indeed the amendment should go forward and the provision be deleted from the bill.