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

I seek a point of clarification: those provisions still exist in the legislation because the government were not able to rip them out. If those opposite are lucky enough to form government after the election—and I know there are many people that hope they are not—they will rip those provisions away and then what? The government will be left with a federal fund of taxpayers' money potentially going to state governments who might have just ticked off on their own project—there is no accountability there. Surely someone in your great department have turned their mind to this.

I get that the government do not support my amendment—that is your prerogative—but surely somebody has turned their mind to protection mechanisms so that there is some oversight and transparency and accountability when federal money could potentially go to state proposed projects, where they are in charge of issuing their own approval.