Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you—through you, Chair—to Senator Roberts and to Senator Patrick. Just to clear up any confusion, for each FTA there still will be a regulation that is disallowable. This is an important point and I think it comes to the heart of what Senator Patrick and Senator Roberts were talking about. Each FTA will still have a regulation, but what this does is if it is a minor change, for example a definitional change, then it doesn't go to JSCOT—definitional change, as we discussed, is from one label to another. However, if it is a formula change, so it is a material change, then that will absolutely still go to JSCOT under existing processes, but what it will not do under this is trigger another regulation to the original regulations. So every five years when the World Trade Organization does these recalculations it will not result in a new regulation because—again, my advice is—none of those technical regulations have ever been challenged, so this actually means you will still have a regulation for each of the FTAs but it will not be updated every five years in this way.