Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I want to answer the minister’s question from a while ago about whether we intend to vote on these amendments. Yes, we certainly do intend to vote on them. They are very important amendments which will substantially improve the scheme that the minister originally brought forward to this chamber. If these amendments are not passed today, is the minister suggesting that the government would vote against them if they were brought up at a later time? I find it a strange proposition that, if the scheme came back, the government would vote against them. We certainly do want to vote on these very important amendments. When are we going to do that? When senators have had their questions answered and are confident that the amendments are appropriate and in accord with what their constituents are seeking.

I do not want to take the Senate away from its particular focus at the moment, but I refer the minister to the domestic offsets program. Could the minister elaborate on what she called ‘windfall gains’ under the domestic offsets program?