My question is to the Prime Minister and relates to ongoing calls for an independent study into the potential impact of subsidence mining on alluvial flood plains that are underlain with hydraulically linked and interconnected groundwater systems. Prime Minister, given the lack of available scientific evidence and the significance of these systems to the inflows into the Murray-Darling river system and the growing investment uncertainty in the mining industry over a state based approval process and a Commonwealth disapproval process, could you, Prime Minister, investigate the option of the federal government breaking this nexus and co-funding a study in conjunction with the New South Wales government and the mining industry?

I always take questions from the member for New England seriously.

You don’t take them from the opposition.

The member for New England, I know from experience, represents his constituency effectively and comprehensively and asks questions of direct relevance to the people that he represents in this parliament; therefore, I extend to him the courtesy of saying I will provide to him a substantive reply to the matter he has raised, given his deep commitment to industries in his area.

I call the member for Brisbane.