Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill 2013

This division relates to the Policies For protecting Australia's fresh water resources and For coal seam gas extraction.

The majority voted in favour of a motion to put the question, which was whether the Liberal Party's amendment should be agreed to.

The Liberal Party amendment was introduced by Senator Simon Birmingham to draw a distinction between "exploration or appraisal activities and actual production and development activities".(You can read Senator Birmingham's comments about the amendment here. )

The vote on the amendment is available here.

Background to the Bill

The purpose of the bill is to protect water resources from significant impacts caused by coal seam gas and large coal mining developments.(See here for more information about the bill, including its explanatory memorandum and bills digest.) This is called a ‘water trigger’. The bill creates penalties and offences to prohibit such actions.

References