QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WONG (South Australia—Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (14:33): Senator, I hope that you would be supportive of the critical minerals announcement that has been made, and I hope also that sensible people in your party room will be arguing not for a position which is about political conflict or internal division but a position which is good for the country, and the reality is we do need serious and urgent reform to this act.

We know that because the Samuel review, which Ms Ley commissioned, told us this five years ago. We do know there are too many issues and too much duplication with the approval process. What we want is a reform that will deliver stronger environmental protection and restoration and more efficient and robust project assessment.

The PRESIDENT: Senator McDonald? Senator McDonald: Could I draw the minister back to the question about whether or not any representatives of the US government raised concerns. The PRESIDENT: I believe the minister is being relevant to the question, but I will listen carefully.

Senator WONG: Senator McDonald, I'll be really clear with you. I don't go into discussions with other governments because the opposition decides that it wants to play a bit of politics with the US relationship. I thought you might have learned from this last couple of weeks and that you might just do the right thing and back in the deal.

What I was going to say is that you would be aware that we have been engaging in the critical minerals discussion for some time. You might recall that this was part of our election campaign. You might recall, as I mentioned, that this was an initiative discussed at the second Quad meeting.

So we have had long, detailed engagements with the United States, and we have an agreement that is a good agreement. My suggestion to you is that you might want to back it in. The PRESIDENT: Senator McDonald, first supplementary?