Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It's not uncommon to have a representative group, or groups, of experts with different perspectives to look at draft legislation before government comes to the point of actually consulting on detailed legislation. That's not an uncommon process, Senator Hanson-Young, so I would push back on your suggestion that we dumped a process. Having taken some legislation through this parliament previously, I'd say that it is not an unusual process to try and have a smaller group—in this case, experts from more than 30 groups, including environment, business and industry—who are able to carefully examine the detail to make sure the laws are as effective as possible. This is a very complex piece of legislation. It's been added to over time. It's obviously been in place for some time. There will be different views, and I'm sure there will be the capacity for the community to see it before it's in the parliament. (Time expired)