Anne Ruston (SA, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, can I just put on the record that I'm not entirely sure that I ever said that the CEFC was told where it was to be located.

The Australian government, as I have said time and time again, has a very strong commitment to rural and regional Australia. Our decentralisation policy will certainly be supported by the corporation being located in Orange, New South Wales. Orange is an extraordinarily important agricultural hub, and we believe that this is an appropriate place for the RIC to be located. Meetings have been held with a number of entities, which I have previously put on the public record as part of this debate, which were consulted about the operational arrangements of the organisation, so there certainly has been consultation.

In essence, this is absolutely consistent with our current policy. It's in line with the exemptions under the Legislation (Exemptions and Other Matters) Regulation that a direction is not a legislative instrument and therefore is not disallowable. This approach also provides certainty to the board about where the corporation will be located and will allow it to have focus on having the corporation fully operational by July 2018.