Fiona Nash (NSW, National Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Education) Share this | Hansard source

I note for the record that the minister did not answer my question about his comment about pork-barrelling for the National Party more fulsomely. Perhaps before he makes a comment he should research it rather more thoroughly so that he can inform the chamber of what he is talking about. I also note for the record the fact that we have only just received the regulations that go with this piece of legislation. That is far from acceptable, given that it is precisely those regulations that we need to ask the questions about in this particular process. We have not had time to go through them in any detail whatsoever. As such, I indicate to the chamber that this may well be a rather laborious process while we try to understand what the minister has indeed put in front of us in terms of the regulations that relate to this legislation.

Senator Xenophon's amendment 4 refers to 4 part i, the availability of water, or part ii, land and resource access for agricultural production. The amendment states that the minister should determine that, if there is an adverse impact that relates to either of those two, the project is deemed to be an excluded offsets project. Could the minister inform the chamber as to whether there is anything in these regulations that mirrors that requirement in the amendment from Senator Xenophon?