Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I might just take this a little bit further. My understanding, and my advice, is that section 33 declarations are necessary to exclude individual fishing operations from the provisions of part 3, including the prohibition on taking an action that is likely to have a significant impact on the environment in the Commonwealth marine area. I suppose the question comes back to the statement that Minister Burke made that he had no powers to do anything and therefore this legislation was necessary. What assessment was made around that particular provision of the act?