Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I indicate the govern­ment supports these amendments and it is committed to avoiding adverse impacts. These amendments would require that the minister consider whether there is a material, rather than a significant, risk and that a kind of project will have a material, rather than a significant, adverse impact on the availability of water, the conservation of biodiversity, employment and the local community. The government takes these issues associated with the negative list very seriously and has, in addition— which I think we have been discussing this morning—put out details of excluded project types for consultation. But, clearly, the importance of this is to get it right and we agree that these amendments will go some way to achieving that.