Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

To belabour the point, I am afraid the government is going to find it a little difficult to justify their positioning here when it is perfectly clear that we have only had the water trigger on the law books for about 18 months, yet these Water Act provisions have been used three times in the last six years. Clearly without them there would not have been those independent water studies. Yes, we now have the water trigger, but it only applies to large coal mines and coal-seam gas. Is the minister suggesting that the water trigger should be expanded so that it includes the mining activities that the Water Act section you are seeking to repeal currently covers? I would welcome that. Can the minister clarify: will you now expand the water trigger so that it can cover gold mining, silver mining, lead mining, zinc mining and any other subsidence mining currently protected under the Water Act and required to have had an independent study done into its ground water impacts?