Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition will not be supporting these amendments, although I have to say that we do have some sympathy for the Greens' concerns in relation to where the provisions stand at the moment. In that context, the government has only got itself to blame, from my perspective, because we did, as I have said a number times throughout this process, ask that the regulations be available for consideration by this place in conjunction with the commencement of the offences under this legislation. We did talk about the process of visibility of the reports during the committee stage. It was something that we gave some consideration to and, from recollection, we made some recommendations to the government about how that process might work, the cycle of reporting and the auditing of the process. As Senator Milne has said, it is important that people have confidence in the process and the system. My only hope is that that process is reflected in the regulations when we get to see them. I again express my concern that it does not look like Minister Ludwig will meet the commitment that he gave to Mr Abbott that the regulations would be available for discussion by 24 December. Having said that, I do not see any value in imposing in the umbrella legislation the process that the Greens are proposing as part of this amendment.

Question negatived.