Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

The government will not be supporting the amendment. I can add, though, that we are pretty close. Effectively, the government has proposed a five-year review. Given the way your amendment would operate, Senator Milne, we are only really arguing about one year, I think. It would have been one year earlier than our proposal. You are suggesting two plus two, making four years. We are suggesting five years on the basis that we have carefully considered it and that will allow sufficient time for the operation of the legislation. For those who want to make submissions, see how it has operated and continue to ensure its effectiveness, a five-year review is what I would call pretty standard in this type of legislation, particularly given the newness of it and how it will operate.

With those short words, I do not support the amendment but do say that the government has firmly committed to the five-year period and does recognise the need for a review of the legislation and how it operates. This is not for the reasons that you have suggested, Senator Milne, but for the reasons that we will encounter issues as we work through—I have no doubt about that—and that we will want to address them. Many of those can be addressed by regulation as we proceed through, but the fundamental legislation, which is the framework legislation, will need to operate for that period to give it some certainty for industry.