Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for the information and his response. Certainly, the landfill gas sector have said to me, and I am sure they have said it to Senator Xenophon as well, that they are eager to ensure that the integrity and equity of the system is maintained, as well. But they also want to make sure that there is as much certainty for them as possible.

I pose two areas of questioning, first in relation to the draft methodology that is being finalised and will be presented to the DOIC. Is there an understanding of how that will approach the baseline figures and, if so, how is it going to approach those? Are you able to inform the chamber of that? If you are not able to inform the chamber perhaps you could tell us why you are unable to do so. Secondly—this is a matter I raised on Thursday—in regard to timing I understand that there is an expectation that the finalisation of the independent assessment should all be done within the space of about a month. I think you, Minister, alluded to that on Thursday. Is that your understanding? Perhaps to educate me, if not anybody else, could you inform the Senate how it is possible that that timeline is going to be met in such a short period of time. Is the DOIC already operational, notwithstanding the fact that it appears to have its rules and mandate laid out within this legislation? Is there a process already underway to ensure that those timelines to provide certainty can in fact be met?