Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

If I understand your question correctly, I would say that is the case. There is capacity for states to do things that are not possible at a Commonwealth level under WTO provisions.

You mentioned in your initial presentation to the amendments some issues around regional difference. That was a significant issue during the initial discussions on the legislation prior to the election. There has been considerable work done to mitigate those concerns in this piece of legislation. It is effectively dealt with through the capacity of the country to consider Australia or part of Australia—which means a region—and that is then largely managed through the import risk assessment analysis process. As I mentioned before, if the science is not conclusive, it does give us the capacity to apply provisional conditions until that science is settled.

The CHAIRMAN: The question is that Greens amendments (1), (2) and (11) on sheet 7676 be agreed to.

Question negatived.