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

That is quite an admission—'If the assessment is adequate for the states, it should be adequate for the Commonwealth.' You are supporting an approach that ensures that there has to be a duality of assessment processes, a duality of approvals processes, in relation to this new trigger but you are saying if it is adequate for the states, it should be adequate for the Commonwealth. That is a remarkable admission from the government. It seems to be acknowledging that there is an inherent duplication in terms of the legislative framework it is applying to projects, a duplication of state laws and now federal laws, should this pass.

But, Minister, my question was going to the matter of whether the Commonwealth would expect applicants to provide additional information to the Commonwealth to clear the assessments and approvals framework that will be mandated by the Commonwealth. Is it your contention that the Commonwealth would routinely be satisfied or potentially always be satisfied by the information provided by applicants to states to get their state approvals and the Commonwealth therefore would not be seeking any additional information from applicants to ascertain Commonwealth approvals?