Senator COLBECK (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance and Administration) (10:51 AM) —I want to clarify a couple of things, as Senator O’Brien has done, in relation to some comments that were made by the Greens on the Offshore Petroleum Bill 2005 and related bills. In relation to the veto, I quite clearly put on the record the fact that the Department of the Environment and Heritage does have the capacity to veto. That was denied by Senator Milne in her final statement, and it is just not true. It was quite clearly put on the record during the committee stage. Not only can it happen; it has happened. So let us not go down the track of pretending not to hear something that has been quite clearly put on the record.

As Senator O’Brien has just said, the environmental considerations that apply as part of this act are dealt with under the regulations that are attached to the act. As for the processes and all of those things being 40 years old or more, in relation to the regulations that is simply not true. The regulations were updated in December of 2005, in consultation with the environment movement. They sat around the table as part of that process. The Greens continue to deny the involvement of the environment movement as part of this process, and yet they are involved. The government does see the protection of the environment as being important, so there is a process of continuous improvement. Senator O’Brien mentioned it in relation to the regulations, and that is appropriate.

Senator Bob Brown said several times during the debate that fishermen have been kicked out of marine parks. Again, that is not true. I am surprised that the party that purports to be supportive of the environment does not have an understanding of the marine protected area process that is being conducted in Australia at the moment. It really does surprise me. It concerns me even more, given that Senator Brown and Senator Milne are from Tasmania, where there has been significant debate over the last three or four months about marine protected areas in their own home state—the state that they represent—and they do not understand the process. It is just staggering that they come into this place without understanding that process.

Senator Bob Brown —You don’t understand it. That’s the problem.

Senator COLBECK —I am really staggered, Senator Brown, that you come in here continually making statements about what can and cannot happen in a marine protected area. You obviously do not understand it. It is very concerning. Obviously you do not support the fishing industry either; otherwise you would have taken a real interest in it.

Finally, in relation to the capacity of companies to hang on to areas that they have, a company cannot just sit on an area without doing what is required of it under the conditions that the permit was granted for—including looking after the environment. It cannot just sit there and not do the exploration that was agreed to as part of the application. So there were a number of things that I felt needed to be corrected in the final part of this debate that were continually repeated by the Greens and that simply are not true.

Question put: