Appendix A: Inquiry process
Adoption of the inquiry
The inquiry was referred to the Committee by the Hon Peter
Garrett AM MP, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts, and
Senator the Hon Penny Wong, the Minister for Climate Change and Water, on 20
March 2008.
Conduct of inquiry
The inquiry was advertised in the national press[1]
and on the Committee’s website. Invitations to lodge submissions were sent to
over 150 individuals and organisations with a possible interest in the matter,
including State Premiers and Chief Ministers. The Committee received 107
submissions, 21 supplementary submissions and 180 exhibits.[2]
Details are at Appendices B and D to this report.
The Committee held 28 public hearings, from July 2008 to August
2009, in Canberra, the Central Coast of New South Wales, Darwin, Adelaide,
Hobart, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Broome. The dates and locations
of these public hearings, including details of witnesses who appeared before
the Committee, are at Appendix C.
The Committee also undertook nine site inspections to
coastal areas vulnerable to climate change and environmental impacts, including
the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland; the Central Coast, New South Wales; Kakadu
National Park, Northern Territory; Port Adelaide and Salisbury, South Australia;
Pitt Water-Orielton Lagoon Ramsar site, Hobart; Cottesloe, Mandurah and
Busselton, Western Australia; the Gold Coast and Moreton Bay, Queensland; Port
Phillip Bay, Melbourne; and James Price Point, Western Australia.[3]
Case studies on some of these site inspections are included in the report.
Submissions to the inquiry, transcripts of evidence taken at
public hearings and an electronic copy of the report are available from the
Committee’s website at http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ccwea/coastalzone/index.htm.