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

Yes, you have correctly identified the bill in my hand. At 131, 'Transitional—pre-commencement application for endorsement of proposal' the bill contemplated that there would be an interim DOIC in place and how we would then deal with transitional arrangements. Effectively that section means that a person applies to the interim offsets integrity committee for the endorsement of a proposal or a methodology determination and the committee either endorses the proposal or refuses to endorse the proposal—avoid doubt. Then 132 deals with pre-commence­ment endorsement of proposal and indicates how each is to be effectively dealt with. Then, as you are aware, the methodologies are disallowable instruments. So once they are set in train, the short answer is that they are flipped over into the new DOIC as methodologies that will be picked up—that is the easiest way to explain it. That allows all of that work to commence prior to the establishment of the permanent DOIC and to be utilised and continue in operation.