ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
on an EPA?
Mr HAMPTON: Well, member for Brennan, that is like
how long is a piece of string, really, is it not?
What I can say is that this government is the one that created the EPA. They have their
own
Environmental Protection Authority Act. We have provided a great deal of funding to them and, in
this budget, we have announced extra funding for them to meet their extra responsibilities through
legislation amendments we provided this year. I am fully satisfied the current level of funding matches
the current level of responsibility within the act.
Mr CHANDLER: Thank you, minister. The second question. Budget Paper No 1, page 12, states a
$500 000 funding boost for the EPA. However, I can only identify an additional $434 000. Can you
explain the difference, please?
Mr HAMPTON: Yes, I might give that one to Susan Kirkman.
Ms KIRKMAN: There was new funding of $500 000, but there was also a carry forward from 2008-09
into 2009-10 of $65 000 and a $1000 adjustment for promos and CPI.
Mr CHANDLER: Makes sense. Thank you. Minister, given the public statement by the Chief Minister
at the Oil and
Gas Conference last year, where he openly promoted that he had land rights in hand,
and that there were no environmental third party issues in the Northern Territory, does this not
undermine the independence of the EPA in your opinion?
Mr HAMPTON: As I said, this government are the ones that created the EPA. This government has
provided it with extra teeth through legislative amendments this year. So I think the Chief Minister and
government’s record and our position on the EPA is fairly and squarely there in the public arena. We
have, as I said, provided extra dollars in this budget - $500 000 to enable them to undertake their
legislative responsibilities, and the extra teeth that we have provided for them in the changes to their
act this year. So, in terms of our record and in terms of our position of the EPA, it is there on the
public record.
Mr CHANDLER: I appreciate there have been some recent improvements in what the EPA can do,
extra
responsibilities and so forth, but I worry that, if we have got a Chief Minister that goes out and
openly publicly says to, you know, in particular, the oil and gas industry, that there are no third party
environmental issues in the NT, in my mind, that certainly undermines what the EPA is there for, and
that is to protect our environment. If you have got a Chief Minister that is saying this, ‘it is okay to
come to the Territory, we have got no environmental concerns, they are all in my back pocket’. That is
what it says to me, and I worry that that is the message that gets sent out there, and with recent
events that have
occurred in our environment, from pollution, for instance, it certainly underpins the
Chief Minister’s, perhaps his line, or his real intent when it comes to protecting our environment.
Mr HAMPTON: Oh, look, member for Drysdale, our real intent, I think, is out there. As I said, we have
got the track record. We are the ones that created the EPA. We are the ones that have given it
powers within its own act, and if you want to get caught up in what the Chief Minister said, then
maybe, I have been really concerned about some of the things you have said about the EPA, you
know, just with your motion in parliament in the last sittings, to direct them to undertake an
investigation, which they have already done, that was commissioned by this government and that the
EPA had done, in
terms of a review of the Environmental Assessment Act; in terms of investigating
incidences in the harbour.
You have also been out there publicly, directing the EPA to do work, that really does …
Mr CHANDLER: Just a question.
Mr HAMPTON: Well, it really does go back to their independence, and I do not really think you
understand their independence. I am worried that, if you were ever to become the Environment
ESTIMATES COMMITTEE PROCEEDINGS – 17 JUNE 2010
minister, then we would see a weakening of their powers and their act and their independence. For
you, member for Brennan, to say that you are worried about what the
Chief Minister says, well, our
record is there. Let us have a look at what you have been saying. You have been calling them lazy,
you have been challenging their independence …
Mr CHANDLER: Would you table where I have said the EPA is lazy?
Mr HAMPTON: … (inaudible)
Madam DEPUTY CHAIR: Order! Order!
Mr HAMPTON: I would be very careful.
Mr CHANDLER: I am asking you to table where you have seen or heard that I have called the EPA
lazy. That was your statement, minister.
Mr HAMPTON: Member for Brennan, I would be very careful about what you have to say about the
EPA.
Mr CHANDLER: Where have I ever said the EPA is lazy? That was your statement. We will move on.
Madam DEPUTY CHAIR: There is a conversational nature going on here, and let us move forward
please, member for Brennan.
Mr HAMPTON: Madam Deputy Chair, we have the member for Drysdale there, sorry.
Mr CHANDLER: No, he is there.
Members interjecting.
Mr Bohlin: Do
not blame me for anything, Karl.
Mr CHANDLER: Minister, three months after receiving the report, Achieving Ecologically Sustainable
Development in the Northern Territory, have you provided feedback to the EPA on perhaps how you
will implement the advice and recommendations provided by the EPA?
Mr HAMPTON: Certainly, that has been a great big body of work that the EPA has done, and I would
like to acknowledge the board, Dr Andrea Tucker and the rest of the board members. I value their
work, again, a great big body of work that has been with me, and it is something that, in
terms of
recommendations, I am taking on board and will be able to let people know shortly about our
response.
Mr CHANDLER: Is there a time frame for that, or just when you get around it?
Mr HAMPTON: No, there is certainly no time frame, member Brennan.
Mr CHANDLER: Minister, do you consider the EPA suffers a poor public community in the Northern
Territory, not so much in what they legislatively mandated to do, but more so from what the average
person’s perspective of what the agency does, or is supposed to do, and what measures will you be
taking to change this?
Mr HAMPTON: The EPA is a new body, there has been calls for them to
be have more teeth, and
what I have done as the minister to assist that is to provide them, through my main role as a legislator
is to provide them with more teeth in terms of the amendments we have provided to the EPA this