Barnaby Joyce (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

We have some confusion here. You do not have to state the point that it is opt in; we understand that. We have that part well and truly booked out. What we are querying here is the issues for the people who do opt in. We want to know what human induced means are. The only answer that I have gotten so far that seems to go towards the issue is that you have got regulations to come that we at this point in time have not seen.

I have got country. To be honest, it is far cheaper for me to leave the land alone, and it has been cleared for years, it will revegetate. The answer that I want to know is: is that a human induced means of revegetation or is that natural? If it is natural then I will not do it. If you are saying that the regulations are yet to come then the whole point of this legislation becomes opaque and implausible, because we do not know what we are talking about. We will have to send it to a committee—especially when the regulations turn up. If the regulations are not right, we will have to disallow the regulations and, if we disallow the regulations, the whole legislation falls over. So it is really important for you, the minister, to be able to clarify this at this point in time. If you are going to answer the question, give me a nod and I will sit down. If you are not going to answer it, I will go to the next question.