Senator BOSWELL —I refer the Minister for the Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories to his assertion on Friday in relation to the assessment of the Christmas Island mining proposal that the offer of Elders Resources Ltd of $1 per product tonne for rehabilitation offset the Booth consortium's superiority on royalties. Is it not a fact that Mr Yeomans's assessment did not conclusively compare these two proposals on the basis of their offers on rehabilitation; that Mr Yeomans's assessment acknowledged that he had made no expert assessment on the likely cost of rehabilitation; and that in any case the base proposals on rehabilitation assumed an open-ended response to the Booth proposal for rehabilitation, which assumed and open-ended responsibility to rehabilitate all mined areas as an integral part of the extraction process, whereas Elders rehabilitation proposal was limited to the value of $1 per tonne product? In light of these facts, how can the Minister assert that Mr Robert Yeomans, in accord with the Attorney-General's advice, recommended an offer which maximised returns to the Commonwealth? Has the Minister unintentionally misinformed Parliament?

Senator RICHARDSON —I gave Senator Boswell quite a lengthy answer to the question of the liquidator and his performance on Christmas Island on Friday. I have nothing to add to that. Obviously the liquidator had the primary task of assessing the three offers, from Booth and Century as well as from Elders. In the last couple of weeks I have been advised by the Department-twice because of Senator Boswell's interest-that even in retrospect the Government has no cause to regret the acceptance of the liquidator's decision and that the Government has not forgone any revenue by accepting it. I have nothing to add to those answers. If Senator Boswell has some evidence that I do not and that in some way what I have said is wrong, I would be very happy to have a look at his evidence. To repeat what I said the other day, I can only say that the Booth offer in the end added up to 5 per cent of the current phosphate price-that is the extra sweetener to the Government. In the case of Elders, it added up to 6 1/2 per cent. That is the only advice I have been given and the only advice on which I can work.