Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Bradfield for the question. In terms of the laws that were passed, first of all, on the concept of delegating approvals and assessment powers to the states, that did exist under the old act. But, under the old act, you effectively had to entirely delegate. The concept of only delegating specific functions is something that was new under what went through.

In terms of the progress of both standards and any concept of delegation to the states, I can go through the pace as to how each of those works. Getting the new environmental standards is our No. 1 priority. That's where the pace is occurring. The new legislation comes into effect in tranches over the next year, and there'll be opportunities for people to be engaging on the development of the new national environmental standards—and they are the backbone of the legislation that went through. Work is already well underway on developing the standards. There have been around 700 submissions made on those standards, which we're now working through.

In terms of the delegation, there are two different forms. You've got delegation, potentially, of assessments, and you've got delegation of approvals. The delegation of assessments is something that would have to be in place and functioning before a delegation of approvals would even be considered. In terms of the order, it's the standards that are happening at pace now. For anything in terms of delegation, there would have to have been, for some time, a functioning assessments agreement before consideration would be given to approvals.

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