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

Senator Cox, can I take the opportunity to perhaps provide a point of clarification about a matter that you raised in your contribution. You made a suggestion about my contributions over the course of the last few days, and I think you said the government is not in conversation about projects. That's not correct and that's not the information that I have provided to the Senate. Of course, the government is in conversation about projects. What I have made clear is that there is no application before the government because the legislation that would facilitate any such application is not in place. Secondly, you ask about the interaction with Timor-Leste.

I think the basic point to make here is that Australia respects Timor-Leste's right to make sovereign decisions about inward investment; these are questions for a sovereign government. I understand that in that country, as in ours, it's likely there'll be a range of views about the best path forward for development. But these are matters for sovereign governments to manage.

In terms of the way that we would interact with any government that was seeking an arrangement with us for transport and movement of carbon dioxide, it's necessary—as I've explained on a number of occasions—under the London protocol for a country-to country agreement to be established before any such movement or key meeting could be allowed.