Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction. In the meetings he referred to in the previous answer, with officials from the department, did he disclose his interest in land impacted by the listing of critically endangered grasslands in the Monaro region or in a compliance investigation into land clearing in that region?

Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have always disclosed my interests and I've been very clear about those interests. In 2017, before I was the minister in this role, as I answered in the previous question, I received a briefing from departmental officials on technical aspects of a revised listing under the EPBC Act. The reason is that those changes impacted the farmers in my electorate. I care about the farmers in my electorate. I wanted to see that drought fund go through yesterday, despite the protestations from those opposite and unlike the member for Eden-Monaro, who takes no interest in the farmers in his electorate. The department of the environment have confirmed that the briefing did not discuss compliance action. They have confirmed that. When it was raised in Senate estimates in April 2019, the Secretary of the Department of the Environment and Energy said:

… I can be very clear: Minister Taylor has never raised the issue with me.