Mark Butler (Port Adelaide, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Climate Change and Water) Share this | Hansard source

Whoever it is, it is the national government's responsibility to protect matters of national environmental significance. Provision 1 of the bill is a particular double whammy when viewed against the background of the policy decisions of this government by which the environmental approval powers would be placed in the hands of a state government such as the Newman government—which, in our view, has a very poor record on environmental protection.

We will not be supporting schedule 1 of the bill. I must say that I confess to still not understanding why schedules 1 and 2 have been put together in one bill. We are happy to support the turtle and dugong protection elements of the bill, but will not be supporting schedule 1. I foreshadow that, during consideration in detail, I will be moving an amendment to omit schedule 1 of the bill. In our view, it is important that debate on this bill take place against the backdrop of this government's decision to hand over the environmental approval powers to some state governments. (Time expired)

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