Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Families and Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

It is absolutely essential that Australia remains at the forefront of an efficient agricultural producer. We obviously face unprecedented times, at the moment, by changing global market conditions, international competition, new technologies, climate and water risks, and global disruptions such as the pandemic that we are currently facing.

Delays in environmental approval processes add millions of dollars to the cost of major projects. That is why this government is absolutely focused on busting the congestion, to break through these multimillion-dollar backlogs of environmental assessments, to make sure that we continue to deliver these projects, recognising that it's very important that we continue to make sure that our environmental protections are in place but do not delay projects, to make sure that we continue to support our economy with these very important projects. I can advise that we have improved that process from 19 per cent in December to 87 per cent in March, and we are on target to 100 per cent approval by June 2020.