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

I notice that Senator Conroy has ignored the opportunity to clarify for the committee where the government stands across the raft of expansionary Greens amendments that are before the committee with regard to this legislation. Senator Conroy had the chance after I finished speaking, and he had the chance after Senator Ludlam finished speaking, to tell the chamber whether or not the government intends to use this legislation as a Trojan Horse to strip away any future opportunities to make environmental regulation more efficient in this country, and to manage to eliminate the duplication that exists between the states and the Commonwealth in so many areas. Senator Conroy has already acknowledged in this debate that the Commonwealth government expects to rely largely holus-bolus on state assessments when it comes to this new environmental trigger. If they are going to rely on state assessments so much it is obvious there is inherent duplication in these laws as there is in environmental laws more broadly. The government was once upon a time going to embrace the opportunity for greater efficiencies; instead, the government rejected that and did an about-face last year, and Senator Conroy has missed the opportunity to—

Progress reported.