Fiona O'Malley (Progressive Democrats)

There is certain merit in Senator Bradford's amendment. He has rehearsed the arguments and I will not repeat them but the lack of a timescale is a concern. There is no limit as to the period by which a licence application must be granted. It has been a major problem. It is also a problem with the Bill currently before the other House and which we argued here. It would appear to be a sort of protection mechanism if there is no time limit by which a person can reasonably expect to have a foreshore licence granted, particularly in this area of foreshore licences where there is major exploration involving massive costs. The costs for ships that go out to do explorations are massive. There might only be three or four of them in the world and they must be booked well in advance. That is the reason time delays are critical.

Senator Bradford, in his Second Stage contribution, referred to the cost to this country's economy of allowing these delays continue for years. There are many projects in the pipeline about which there is deep frustration which will be lost because we do not have a time line. The all-party committee on climate change examined this in the Bill we produced but it is important we have some form of recognition that matters need to be expedited in this area fairly quickly.