Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) | Hansard source

Thanks, President. Senator Hanson, you say that we have imposed some sort of double standard. What we've actually done is ask farmers to comply with exactly the same regulations that every other industry has had to comply with for the last 25 years. Mining companies, renewables companies, property developers and anyone else who proposes a project that is likely to have a significant impact on the environment is required to have a federal assessment. That's now what we're asking of farmers in some situations.

The other thing worth remembering, Senator Hanson, is that one of the reasons we've done this is to protect the Great Barrier Reef, which in our state supplies 77,000 jobs in the regional communities that you claim you represent.