Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I might just need to clarify with the senator what precisely she means by that question. As I have said previously, future extensions or renewals of petroleum titles will require the approval of the Minister for the Environment. My understanding is that the delegate for the Minister for the Environment at the moment is the Director of National Parks. So they would need that approval going forward. Obviously this piece of legislation will make those renewals and extensions that occurred prior to 2016 valid, so the Director of National Parks will not need to formally extend or renew those titles. However, I can advise that the Director of National Parks has written to the minister and advised that, in his view, there would have been no barrier and he would have approved these renewals and extensions even if consent had been sought over this period from 2008 to 2015.