CARBON FARMING —
PASTORAL LEASES
1422. Hon JACQUI BOYDELL to the Minister for Regional Development:
I refer to the ABC article of 20 April
2018 entitled ''Multi-billion-dollar potential for Western Australia's
carbon farming industry''.
(1) Has the
minister made a final determination on carbon farming project eligibility and
the provision of interest holder consent; and, if so, could the minister table
the government's response?
(2) Has the 12-month pilot program
started, given it was meant to start in April this year?
(3) If no to (2),
are all 20 projects mentioned in the minister's media release of
December 2018 still eligible for funding and how many are ineligible?
(4) When will the
framework and associated legislation for pastoral reform to allow carbon
farming be tabled in Parliament?
(5) When will the
40 leaseholders still awaiting a response from the minister's office
get further clarity on this matter?
Hon
ALANNAH MacTIERNAN replied:
I thank the member for the
question.
(1)–(5) As
the member would be aware—it is the reason, I guess, this initiative
never occurred under the previous government—it is very hard to build
consensus on this, but we are, I believe, in the final weeks, closing in on a decision
on this. I regret that it has taken this long. Unfortunately, this is an issue
that has attracted a certain amount of resistance in areas, but we have been
working very, very hard to move forward on this. We have been keeping in touch
with all those pastoralists, as I understand it. The eligibility is still there
and we are keeping the Clean Energy Regulator fully informed of what we are
doing. I am hopeful that sometime soon we will be able to get a definitive
answer on this.