Dr. Cecil Beamish:

Yes, pending a determination. That determination might grant the same licence, refuse it or vary it. What the outcome would be at the point of determination must be free and based on the evidence. A decision on whether that particular activity in the area was doing harm to the environment would be made on the licence's renewal, which is when all of the information would be to hand. That is how that works.

The Senator also asked how many applications were unsuccessful in previous rounds of applications. Most of the previous licences were given out under the 1997 Act in the period from 1998 to 2000. I do not have information on the number of applications refused, varied and so on at that time. Of the applications that we have been dealing with to date under the new system, 32 have been refused and a good many - I do not have the exact number - have been varied, in that they would have got a different set of-----