David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister, for that. In the absence of detail, I guess we just have to make assumptions that there wasn't much genuine consultation by the minister on this. You've outlined committee processes. It will come as a shock to senators in this place that a Senate legislation committee recommends the passing of a bill!

To go back to this very valid concern about consultation not just on this bill: should this pass, when we have proponents suggesting or putting forward projects, you have told the Senate that the proponent would be required to do public consultation. We've recently seen some huge issues around that, one example being Santos and Tiwi islanders. I'm interested how the department will know that it is receiving all relevant information and views from the consultation.

How will the department know that it is receiving all relevant submissions and views on the public consultation? Why would the department not conduct their own consultation, given that this is a new area for Australia? This has not been done before.