Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, I hear you talk about sacking people. Perhaps you have not heard yet that BHP have just closed another coalmine in Queensland.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN: Senator Macdonald, I remind you to come back to the amendments to the bill in question.

Thank you, Mr Temporary Chairman. I was distracted by that unruly interjection from the minister. What I was saying in relation to coal seam gas in Queensland is that the previous Labor government in Queensland showed the same expertise in managing the coal seam gas issue in Queensland prior to the change of government as the federal government have shown in relation to pink batts, green loans, carbon taxes, mining taxes—you name it. They have just been incapable of delivery. That was my point, and that is how I got onto that line.

I can well understand that the minister does not personally know the answer to this, but he has four advisers sitting there who would. Unfortunately they cannot speak; they can only speak through the minister, regrettably. What I want to know is what this committee will achieve that the Queensland commission will not achieve.