Matt Thistlethwaite (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Perhaps, Senator Heffernan, you will be voting with the Greens on this bill given your concerns regarding the issue. We will wait and see. But I reiterate my points earlier made. It is in my view inappropriate for the Commonwealth to be passing these laws, which apply only to corporations but would allow, were this law passed, cooperatives, sole traders and partnerships to continue to extract and mine coal seam gas on land. This law would apply only to corporations. It is an area of lawmaking that is traditionally within the ambit of the states, and I believe it would be inappropriate for the Commonwealth to be passing these laws and encroaching on that ambit, particularly in the context of the fact that, when we are talking about environmental protection, the Commonwealth has in place a stringent process for the approval of these projects and, importantly, disallowance measures where the relevant minister believes that the safeguards in terms of environmental assessment have not been met and there will potentially be damage to the environment. On that basis I do not support the bill and I urge the Senate to reject the bill.