Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister. So you are saying that the making and amending can only be done on the advice of the integrity committee but, if you are making another decision in relation to the determination, you can do that without seeking the advice of the committee. If the minister’s interpretation is correct—and I appreciate that she says she is going to get some further advice on that; it does seem contradictory—could she explain the principles behind paragraph 4.68 of the explanatory memorandum, which says that you cannot deal with a determination unless you get some advice, and the next clause, which says you can do something else with a determination but, in that case, you do not need advice?

What is the domestic offsets integrity committee all about? Is it to give the minister advice on what she should or should not be doing? Let me not ascribe motives to the committee but it seems to me that, while you recognise that making, amending and dealing with a determination requires advice from what is apparently going to be an expert committee, if you are going to make some other decision in relation to the determination, there is not the same urgency, apparently, to get that advice from the expert committee. I appreciate that the minister was checking her interpretation but, if it is confirmed her interpretation is correct, what is the principle behind it when you are dealing with a determination and making a decision? Is it that in some cases you need the advice of this expert committee but on other occasions, if you are dealing with a determination, you do not need the advice of that expert committee?