Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

That brings me to my next question. Again, I raised this in the briefing. I think I said that I would raise it here so that we could get clarification. Very recently, in April, when the clearing went on in northern New South Wales, there was an issue around notification and when the Commonwealth was actually notified. The states are not required to tell the Commonwealth when they get a licence to clear; they tell the Commonwealth, as I recall, only when the illegal activity has happened. So, although it was impacting on a Ramsar area, the state did not tell the Commonwealth—it was not required to tell the Commonwealth. When I asked about it at estimates I was told that there was an informal network that provides information, but there was not a compulsion to inform the Commonwealth. Is that going to be corrected? Have provisions been put in place to correct that?