Pippa Hackett (Green Party)
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I thank the Senator and appreciate his comments and his acknowledgement of the difficulty within this in the sector. We commissioned the KPMG report and it highlighted concerns but also the opportunity, and we have to look for the opportunity here. We are embarking on writing a strategy for the horticulture sector and when I met the horticulture industry forum on 26 October, it was a very positive meeting. It did not get bogged down in many of the negatives. The sector wants to have a positive outlook and to embrace any opportunity that is there. While the peat issue is very much in the here and now for so many in the sector, we are making our way through this and are trying to implement recommendations. Let us work through the recommendations from Mr. Boland's report and see how we can implement them. Ultimately we need that engagement and we need the extractors to engage with the regulatory process. Within the confines of my Department, we are doing everything we can to try to facilitate that.

Senator Boyhan is right that we need to have that further engagement with the Department with responsibility for planning and the Department with responsibility for the environment. We need to come to an agreed approach here. As Ms Byrne said, the industry has committed to moving away from peat but we are in this moment where we have to try to facilitate that as quickly as possible.