Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's always good to follow the master over there, because the Greens are absolutists who deliver nothing but complain about everything. We see it day in, day out, and the only thing—

As you scurry from the chamber, think about this. The only thing you're good at is complaining, sooking and whingeing, but you've never delivered a thing. Think about that, Master. Think about that.

Archie Roach said:

The land is a living, breathing entity. If you love the land, the earth, it'll love you back. It's just the way it's always been. Again, there's no big secret to it. If you want a relationship with the land, you just have to love it.

…   …   …

We're not exclusive from nature. We're a part of it! We're part of everything around us

This quote from Archie Roach explains the relationship that we who live on this land have with this land and how we should interact with it.

Today, I proudly rise to speak on this innovative piece of policy, the Nature Repair Market Bill. I, along with everyone else on this side of the chamber, know the importance of implementing programs that will leave our natural world better off for our kids and grandkids. After nearly a decade of stagnation and, to be frank, outright indifference by those opposite to the ongoing progression of climate change, this piece of legislation is one of the many steps that this government is putting in place to protect Australians and Australia's natural resources.

At its core, the bill is helping to support landholders, whether they are First Nations communities or farmers, to invest in the regeneration of their land. We know that landholders across Australia have begun doing this, but we need to acknowledge that while this investment can create profit in the long run, the upfront costs and short- to mid-term investment can be a hurdle for many. This legislation is the step that will get people over that very first hurdle, and it works with the government's commitment to protect 30 per cent of Australia's land and seas by 2030.

We as a government are especially motivated to work quickly after the findings of the 2021 State of the environment report and its story of environmental degradation, loss and inaction. It is a story that paints a bleak future for Australia, a story that calls for an urgent response, a story painted on the backdrop of the Black Summer that devastated a nation. It is why we need trailblazing ideas and a multipronged approach, especially after the years of neglect under conservative governments. We know there needs to be significant investment in conservation and restoration, and while governments across all levels are stepping up, we need to find a way to make it financially viable to encourage private investment in land restoration. And that is what this bill does.

This bill, by encouraging business and private investment, will have a massive impact on individual landholders and First Nations communities looking to regenerate the land. Further, it will have a huge overall impact on the process of reversing environmental decline. We know that we can do this. Rachel Carson said in Silent Spring:

Only within the moment of time represented by the present century has one species—man—acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world.

This is why this government stands to make sure that we contribute to altering the world for good. Goals of regeneration and protecting the environment are common across all stakeholders. Whether it's because of the worsening climate crisis evident in the intensity of the Black Summer bushfires or the widespread flooding we've seen over the last few years, these natural disasters show that more needs to be done to protect the natural world against changing conditions, and there is a hunger amongst communities to do that. Private companies, conservation groups, farmers and other landholders are increasingly looking for ways to contribute to the environment and to conservation. But there really has been no framework to allow these groups to work together to achieve this common goal. We are responding to this demand. This is an innovative effort by this government, amongst the first globally. But what this bill is doing is already deeply ingrained in Australian landholders. Regeneration efforts, research and discourse have been at the forefront of everyone's efforts, and this legislation works to support and promote those things.

With organisations such as the National Farmers Federation, the Northern Land Council and Landcare all supporting this legislation, it shows the widespread support and demand for it. Landcare has said this boost from private investment will 'drive the substantial on-ground work required for repairing and protecting our precious natural assets', acknowledging that this legislation can keep up ongoing investment that sometimes gets lost in the short election and funding cycles.

The bill doesn't just have environmental benefits. In the long term, it has a huge economic benefit. A recent report estimates the market for biodiversity in Australia could unlock $137 billion by 2050. This money will allow farmers to regenerate their land and take on projects that protect their waterways, making their properties more droughtproof and creating a healthier and happier environment. Many farmers have already started to do this, recognising the importance of implementing regeneration projects and promoting biodiversity on their farms.

One farmer who has led the way for research in this field and who advocates for wider understanding of regenerative farming is Charles Massy, a fifth-generation farmer, scientist, leading pioneer in regenerative agriculture and author of Call of the Reed Warbler. He admits that when he took over his family farm he was ecologically illiterate, but he asked himself: why do we have to kill things to grow things? So began his journey into regenerative agriculture, a system of cultivation that aims to put carbon back in the soil, forgoing the use of chemicals and giving us nutritious food. It puts an emphasis on using a range of plants and focusing on ground cover to improve our soil quality. He talks about how these changes brought back wildlife that had been gone from the area for years and how they had improved not only the quality of the land but also the quality of the stock that he kept on it. He said that throughout his process is 'a metaphor for us humans to once more become the enablers, the nurturers, the lovers' of self-organising and regenerative earth. We know we can't force change. We can't make landholders and farmers change from a mechanistic mindset. But we can support and incentivise good practice. We can help with education, and we're showing the long-term benefits from restoration projects and integrating conservation into farming.

Some other landholders who have been pioneers in nature restoration on their properties are Vince Heffernan near Yass and Will Johnson near Cargo. Vince has planted nearly 80,000 trees and shrubs across his sheep property to restore the environment to its precolonial state. He states the importance of these projects by saying:

If I have better biodiversity then I have an ecosystem that is more resilient. It is going to handle whatever climate change throws at it. It is going to handle fires, floods and droughts much better than an ecosystem that is liable to collapse.

Similarly, Will, after planting 15,000 trees on his property, has seen productivity on the farm rapidly increase and said:

The bird life has increased really well, there are a lot of small, native grass birds that you see most days.

These examples show that the investment from the Nature Repair Market Bill will encourage and support more landholders to start their own projects so that they too can reap the benefits of this approach. By having more landholders on board with similar projects, this will really spearhead Australia's commitment to international agreements, making our country more disaster resilient and helping reinvent the way modern Australia engages with our land.

The Nature Repair Market Bill will also enable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to educate and to help promote their unique knowledge within their communities and to other landholders. It will allow them to enter this education process on their own terms. As Bill Gammage explores in his book The Biggest Estate on Earth, First Nations populations expertly and carefully cultivated an environment that was not only sustainable but, most importantly, safe. He explains that their position on land care is:

All must care for the land and its creatures, all must be regenerated by care and ceremony, no soul must be extinguished, no totem put at risk, no habitat too much reduced. That mandate, not the theology, made land care purposeful, universal and predictable.

It's why we are making sure that, at the forefront of these conversations and conservation regeneration, we're educating on how we can work with, not just on, the land. Gammage finishes his explanation by saying:

We have a continent to learn. If we are to survive, let alone feel at home, we must begin to understand our country. If we succeed, one day we might become Australian.

The Nature Repair Market Bill will allow private investment into actively engaging with these communities, which will allow them to operate and educate on their own terms and to adequately get compensated for their work.

Establishing the repair market in this legislation will ensure its ongoing integrity, encouraging investment in nature and driving environmental improvements across Australia. It will allow landholders to draw on best practice to ensure quality programs for investors. The repair market will help nurture projects and deliver long-term nature-positive outcomes through activities such as weeding, planting native species and pest control. These programs can be undertaken on land or water, whether it be lakes and rivers or marine and coastal environments.

The bill will allow for open participation in extensive opportunities around the nation. The investment will allow for projects in local, regional and remote Australia through the creation of a nature-positive economy that will bring money into our local communities and create a whole industry of jobs. The nature repair market will operate with the core principles of integrity and science.

The bill provides biodiversity certificates that have integrity and represent actual environmental improvement. This will allow private investors to invest with confidence and avoid the greenwashing that has become prevalent with conservation investment. There will also be an independent expert committee responsible, making sure that projects promised are delivered and of a high quality, with monitoring, reporting and notification of the delivery of project activities and progress on the environmental outcome, the ability to enforce the said outcomes.

The department, along with the ACCC and ASIC, will help enforce nature-positive plans directly, to restore public accountability and trust. All agreements will be scrutinised by both the parliament and the public. In the design of this market the government is making a priority to listen to all stakeholders for their opinions and ideas. The bill mandates public consultation on methods and the instrument for measuring and assessing biodiversity.

I'm proud to be part of a government that is not only being a trailblazer in the environmental policy and trying new ideas but is also underpinning all our legislation with the election commitment we made to be a more transparent and accountable government.

This piece of legislation is incredibly important and acknowledges that the government has a significant role to play in the bulk conservation and biodiversity efforts. We should also enable integrity and scientifically backed avenues for private individuals and businesses to be a part of this journey. The legislation allows all landholders to participate in the market if they can deliver long-term nature-positive outcomes.

The nature repair market will enable greater participation and create employment and economic opportunities. It will promote and enable free, prior and informed consent on projects on traditional landowners' land and waters. There will be opportunities to design projects that reflect the knowledge and connection to the country of our First Nations people and utilise their skill and knowledge in a nature-positive future. While it won't have an immediate effect, it is the building blocks for a sustainable future. It's just part of our plan to get Australia to be a world leader in conservation. With this, I commend the bill to the House.

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