Senator Gold: Thank you for your question. I am going to answer it directly, but I want to remind and advise colleagues in this chamber of the innovation that was in these commission reports and which the government welcomes, namely that, rather than waiting until the end of programs, these audits and reports were done in midstream so as to provide the welcome opportunity for the recommendations that it makes to be taken into account as the government adjusts.

To your question: Implicit in my answer — and I will say it more categorically — the government thanks the CESD for its report and accepts the audit’s recommendations within the context, as I will explain, of the narrow scope and limited time involved in that report.

The scope of the audit covered the period of January 2018 to September 2021 and therefore was not able to fully assess the work that was under way to deliver upcoming just transition legislation and the relevant Budget 2021 programming delivered by this government. Recent events, such as the ministerial round table on sustainable jobs, the relaunch of consultations on legislation and the clean jobs training centre demonstrate the government’s ongoing commitment to advancing just transition. Finally, the government is hard at work to ensure that just transition legislation is tabled in Parliament.