Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move amendments (3) and (4), standing in my name on sheet 7118, together:

(3)   Clause 56, page 81 (line 19), after "Act", insert "and subject to subsection (1A)".

(4)   Clause 56, page 81 (after line 21), after subclause (1), insert:

(1A)   Notwithstanding subsection (1), if a project:

  (a)   was established as, or as part of, a managed investment scheme; or

  (b)   is determined by the Minister, on the advice of the Domestic Offsets Integrity Committee, to have an adverse impact on:

     (i)   the availability of water; or

     (ii)   land and resource access for agricultural production;

the project is deemed to be an excluded offsets project.

(1B)   A determination under paragraph (1A)(b) is a disallowable instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

(1C)   In this section:

managed investment scheme has the same meaning as in section 9 of the Corporations Act 2001.

I remind my colleagues that the position with this is that the government was to provide details of the risk management principles and guidelines. I am grateful to the government for providing those. This is AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009 Risk management—Principles and guidelines. My question to the government is that, on the face of looking at these risk management guidelines, I do not understand how it will work in the context of this amendment, which relates to the negative list, and setting out criteria for a project that will have an adverse impact on the availability of water or on agricultural production. How does the government envisage that these guidelines, which, with annexures, run into some 23 pages, will work? For instance, on page 17, item 5.4.2, which is headed 'Risk identification', states:

The organization should identify sources of risk, areas of impacts, events (including changes in circumstances) and their causes and their potential consequences.

I have a genuine question. What on earth does that mean in the context of how the government proposes these risk management guidelines will operate?