In respect of his deliberations on the process for granting or denying environmental approval to projects in planning of resource companies Santos and BG Group: (a) will he make public the scientific evidence provided to his department by these two companies that was used to assist his decision making; if so, by what date; if not, why not; and (b) will he provide detailed information on his deliberations; if so, by what date; if not, why not.

(a)   The environmental impact statements provided to the department, which included supporting scientific evidence relating to the impacts of the projects, were made public as part of the assessment process. Those statements are available on the companies’ websites.

(b)   On 16 November 2010, in response to a resolution of the Senate of 28 October 2010, I tabled in the Senate a large number of documents relating to my decisions to approve coal seam gas projects that will be undertaken by Santos and QGC, a BG Group subsiduary. The documents include the material sought by the Honourable member.