Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Cost Recovery) Bill 2014. The cost recovery bill will amend the EPBC Act to allow cost recovery for environmental impact statements and approvals, as the title suggests. Cost recovery will help to ensure the Department of the Environment is adequately resourced to undertake efficient environmental assessments. Cost recovery for environmental assessments was included by the former government in the 2013-14 budget, with a commencement date of 1 July this year. In his budget-in-reply speech in 2013, the now Prime Minister accepted all charges and savings measures other than those that were specifically excluded. Cost recovery was not specifically excluded. Cost recovery will help to ensure that there are adequate resources to undertake efficient environmental assessments that meet the statutory time frames, and cost recovery will only be applied to projects assessed by the Commonwealth. In conjunction with the one-stop shop, impacts on industry will be minimised.

The member for Wills made a few allegations about this being an eight-stop shop. This is a one-stop shop. Let us be clear about that. It is going to create a whole range of efficiencies. It will slash red tape and help to increase jobs and investment whilst maintaining or improving environmental standards. Duplication of federal, state and local government processes adds to the complexity and cost to businesses of environmental approvals across the country—and, later on, I will give a whole range of examples in my electorate of this overlapping of approvals. The one-stop shop for environmental approvals is aimed at reducing this duplication by streamlining and simplifying the environmental assessment and approvals process. I stress that the high environmental standards under national environmental law will be maintained, but the benefits of the simplified approvals process will flow through to businesses and the community.

When fully implemented, the one-stop shop will have a single entry point at the state level for approvals. This will be through bilateral agreements with each state and territory under the national environment law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. I was in the parliament when the then environment minister, Senator Robert Hill, brought this act in and I blindly voted for it, as everybody did. In fact, all three members on this side of the chamber currently were there at the time. We waived it through, thinking it was marvellous. But it has been a nightmare for many of my constituents, people trying to do business in my electorate and people around Australia, because the Commonwealth deemed since then that it would intervene on just about everything that was raised at a local level—unnecessarily. Why would the Commonwealth, for example, want to impose itself on the expansion of the Dawesville Catholic Primary School's school oval—3,000 kilometres away from that school oval—and they did. It was a costly venture.

Provisions to allow for the creation of a one-stop shop have existed in the EPBC Act since it was introduced. These provisions were in the 1999 act but never really used. The coalition government is delivering on that original act. The government will achieve the one-stop shop through a three-stage process and it will be done by: the signing of a memorandum of understanding with each of the willing states on the key principles of confirming cooperation and achieving a single process; the agreement on bilateral assessments and updating those which have already been in place; and agreement on bilateral approvals within 12 months.

And that is important. Some of these approvals have been bogged down in the federal department for years and it was not until the new minister for the environment in this place, Greg Hunt, decided to get on with some of these approvals that have been sitting there for many years while people have been trying to get on with the business of having them approved. This eliminating of duplication will deliver more timely approvals and allow businesses to expedite their work while maintaining the current high standard of environmental protection.

The Commonwealth will maintain an important role.    We will remain accountable for obligations under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, including international treaties. We will retain an approval role for actions in Commonwealth waters, on Commonwealth land or by Commonwealth agencies. We will have an ongoing role in ensuring that commitments under the bilateral agreements are met. The one-stop shop process will expedite these approval processes and increase certainty for investors, reduce costs and boost productivity, and some of this will help to create jobs.

Areas of savings for business will include: lower costs as business will need only one application and assessment process—one instead of two; faster approvals as business will no longer engage with the Australian government or wait for approval to follow a state or territory approval. This will typically save 30 to 40 business days. There will be more certainty for investors with a simpler, streamlined regulatory system, which is good for Australia's international investment reputation.

I feel uncomfortable now for having just waived through this 1999 act, because of the heartaches that it has caused people trying to do business. Unfortunately, this department has been infiltrated by the green movement, for want of a better word. The greenies in the federal department have taken over and become obstructive and intrusive, unnecessarily so. The caftan-wearing, bead-wearing, hairy bib-and-brace overall brigade has really put its stamp on this department and slowed down a whole lot of approval processes in this country so that it has not only been a cost to business, it has also been an imposition on anyone trying to do business. For example, in my electorate I have seen unnecessary delays with regards to the environmental approvals process in particular with regards to the possible effects on the habitats—and possible habitats—of black cockatoos, including the Forest Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, Baudin's Black Cockatoo and Carnaby's Black Cockatoo.

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