Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, I'm not quite sure how many times I have to step you through this, but let's recall the sequencing. The Northern Territory commissioned the Pepper scientific inquiry into hydraulic fracturing in the Northern Territory. The Northern Territory government accepted the recommendations of that inquiry, and, at the time, your government provided support for such acceptance. The government's stated position, as reflected publicly in statements and also here in this chamber, is that we continue that support. We intend to refer the specific questions in relation to recommendation 9.8 to the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council.

The matters relating to scope 2 and 3 emissions are not matters that could be independently dealt with by the Commonwealth. The energy ministerial council is the appropriate place for this to be considered. You know, as well as I do, that the mere fact of referring a matter for consideration by a body does not have financial implications for government or for industry. We would expect that the ministerial council will provide a response to such a referral. That response could be any number of things. It may be commissioning analysis of some kind. As I've indicated already, if such a matter occurred, I'd be in a position to provide a report to the chamber at a later date.