Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Higgins, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Nature Repair Market Bill 2023 and the related bill. In Australia, we pride ourselves on having a pristine natural environment, with white sandy beaches as far as the eye can see, tropical and temperate rainforests teeming with life, and the quiet power of our central desert. Our spiritual connection and economic dependency on nature is indisputable. More than half of Australia's GDP is moderately to highly dependent on nature, tourism and food production, noting that 70 per cent of our food is reliant on pollinators, such as bees, insects and bats, as are pharmaceuticals. Many of the drugs I used to dispense actually originated in nature, particularly from fungi. However, when you pull back the veil, the reality is completely different. It is confronting. This was highlighted in the Samuel review, which was released in 2020, and then confirmed in the State of the environment report, which was released in 2021. Those opposite actually suppressed this report. What it stated was that Australia's environment is in a poor and deteriorating state. When read in parallel, the picture is grim. The environment is certainly deteriorating, and it is not resilient enough to current or emerging threats. We are witnessing native species extinction, habitat loss and cultural heritage destruction, all of which are accelerating.

Climate change presents the threat multiplier, adding to competing pressures like economic development and human activity, as well as the ingress of invasive species—feral cats, foxes and gamba grass to name a few. Australia now has the ignominious title of being the mammal extinction capital of the world. Since colonisation, 100 endemic species—meaning they're only found on this continent—have become extinct, and we have one of the highest rates of species decline among countries in the OECD. There are more than 1,900 threatened species listed under the EPBC Act of which plants comprise more than half, with over 1,300 at risk of extinction. At least 19 ecosystems are showing signs of collapse or near collapse, including the Great Barrier Reef. If we keep going this way, koalas could become extinct in New South Wales before 2050. We need to pull the handbrake and course correct. We need to challenge our mental models. When we worship at the temple of GDP, nature comes off second-best. This reflects a historic failure of economics to take into account the value of our natural world. This is baffling, considering that the natural world is the source of our food, water, air and raw materials. It nourishes us, both physically and spiritually. Our current and future economies depend on our environmental capital, and that is depleting rapidly. This was always known by our First Peoples. They now seek a greater role in environmental management, and why not? Declines in biodiversity are much slower on lands governed by First Peoples.

Halting the degradation is important. This is outlined in our threatened species plan—a commitment to prevent new extinctions of plants and animals. Conserving an additional 50 million hectares of our land mass equating to 30 per cent of our land in addition to 30 per cent of our oceans is something that we want to do. We are prioritising 110 species and 20 places for conservation. These were chosen based on a set of criteria and represent our diverse land, sea and freshwater environments. Let's meet some of these critters. We have 22 birds—among them are the malleefowl, the red-tailed black cockatoo and the regent honeyeater. There are 21 mammals, including the Australian sea lion, the quokka and the western ringtail possum. There are nine fish, including the grey nurse shark. We have six frogs—frogs are like the canaries in the coal mine; when they die, it should raise alarm bells and red flags—and among them is the mountain frog.

We need to do more than protect nature; we need to go further and repair it. The scale of the problem—I mean, we are talking about reversing extinction here—means that government cannot do this alone. We need to co-opt private investment, just as we are doing with tackling climate change. It's time for a so-called green Wall Street. The nature repair market is a novel market mechanism to repair nature by attracting business and the private sector to the task. Business is brimming with innovative ideas. These can now be directed to restoring biodiversity.

The NRM aligns with target 21 of the threatened species plan by encouraging private sector investment linked to a tradeable green bond or a biodiversity certificate. It will allow landowners, farmers, conservation groups, First Nations communities, businesses and philanthropists to invest in repairing nature, either on land or in water. Possible projects might include excluding livestock and feral animals to restore a natural marsh for frogs, fish, turtles and water birds; replanting a vital corridor of koala habitat; or restoring seagrass meadows, providing refuge for turtles, dugongs, fish and seahorses, which will in turn increase local fish stocks, with benefits to commercial and recreational fishermen. It may mean planting a mix of local species on previously cleared land, feral animal exclusion, buffer grass removal or cultural burning in the Central Desert. It may also mean repairing damaged river beds.

For a young person of today, imagine the career opportunities and the spillover effects. This bill will formalise the participation of First Peoples by creating employment and economic opportunities for them on their country, using their knowledge of country, only now it will be commodified. There are huge opportunities for First Nations communities who have rights or interests over approximately 50 per cent of Australia's land.

We're repairing what's broken and protecting what's good. We understand that any investment in the nature repair market should not substitute for legislative protection, which is why we have committed to conserving 30 per cent of our land and water, with much of the focus being on terrestrial assets—land—from the current 22 per cent protection base line. Within the five-year term of the Threatened Species Action Plan, we will aim for an increase of 50 million hectares of land and sea—that is massive—managed for conversation by 2027, putting us on a trajectory to meet our 30 per cent goal by 2030. The time lines are long, often measured in decades, because reversing decline and preventing threatened species loss takes time, but it starts locally, with a million ideas and, hopefully, native flowers blooming.

What does that economic field of flowers look like? According to PwC it could be $137 billion unlocked by 2050. That is an untapped demand with the holy trinity of social, environmental and economic benefits. Major organisations, including the ACF, the WWF, the National Farmers Association and BCA—the Business Council of Australia—have provided in principle support. The bill will enable the Clean Energy Regulator, an independent statutory authority, to issue biodiversity certificates. Biodiversity certificates can then be traded between companies wanting to invest in nature and/or to enhance their environmental credentials. These certificates will be linked to a measurable outcome, because we need to be certain that proven gains are actually achieved. We have to give the market confidence and we want to put greenwashing aside.

To that end, the ACCC and ASIC will be involved so that buyers can then invest with confidence, avoiding accusations of greenwashing. Offsets in the scheme are seen as a last resort. Why? Because averting loss is not good enough. We want to remediate and restore. We will develop separately a national environmental standard for offsets associated with a hierarchy of actions where we avoid, reduce, use and offset or pay, exchanging like for like.

The independent Nature Repair Market Committee will oversee the delivery of nature-positive outcomes, to give the scheme integrity. Comprising five to six experts in agriculture, science, environmental markets, land management, economics or Indigenous knowledge, it will consult with the public and provide advice to the minister. This advice will be made public. Transparency will be a core element of the scheme; a public register of projects and certificates will be maintained to ensure that all transactions are transparent. This will enable public scrutiny of projects via parliament and via citizen oversight.

We want to incentivise the restoration of nature by mobilising private investment. The demand is there and we're now providing the framework to enable those green shoots to emerge and grow. I commend the bill to the House.

See this speech in context