Peter Khalil (Wills, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I only caught the last portion of the member for Riverina's speech, but there was a fair bit of hyperbole there, I think, in those comments. I would say this to the member: what's clear about the Nature Repair Market Bill 2023 is that we're committed to taking the necessary steps to ensure that nature, our nature, is better off for future generations. That's the fact. Our local parks and reserves don't just provide a precious habitat; they're also a place for people to get together for picnics, for kids' birthday parties, to enjoy nature and to enjoy being out there in the great outdoors. We teach our kids to ride their bikes out there, and we walk the dogs. So fixing up the waterways and the catchment areas around them gives people in the community better access to a higher quality of living, and will help protect threatened plants and animals in those spaces.

The Albanese government wants to make it easier for people to invest in activities that help repair nature because they've invested in it; they're committed to it. We want to support landholders such as farmers and First Nations communities to repair the environment. This is through a whole range of activities such as planting native species, repairing damaged riverbeds and removing invasive species. The nature repair market is being formed as part of the broader Albanese government strategy to deliver on its Nature Positive Plan. This sets out the government's plan to reform our environmental laws to better protect, restore and manage our unique environment.

At the moment, Australia's natural environment is deteriorating. That's just a fact. Our environment is simply not resilient enough to tolerate the threats that exist and are to come over the horizon. Native species are going extinct, habitat loss is occurring and cultural destruction is on the rise. That's why reforms are urgently needed. That's why the Albanese government is reforming our environmental laws, ensuring that we can protect our land and leave it in a better state than we found it. This includes taking steps to improve the repair of nature.

The government is committed to protecting 30 per cent of Australia's land and seas by 2030. This is the same goal adopted internationally under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. In order to attain these goals, we need significant investment in conservation. Business and private sector investors play an important role in helping to reverse environmental decline. These were important findings that Professor Graeme Samuel AC had highlighted as part of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act review. The government is committed to supporting positive outcomes for nature. But we don't have to do it alone. Private companies, conservation groups, farmers and other landholders continue to seek ways to support positive outcomes for nature.

A biodiversity market could unlock hundreds of billions of dollars in financial flows by 2050. This includes things like real estate, agriculture, mining, tourism and hospitality, which can help build nature-positive opportunities for Australia. When it comes to environmental protection, broader stakeholder engagement and collaboration is absolutely essential. All landholders, including Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, conservation groups and farmers, can be and should be involved. The projects will deliver long-term, nature-positive outcomes through activities such as weeding, planting native species and pest control—all good, practical measures. I'm not sure why those opposite are opposing that. These projects will even have scope to support regional Australia through jobs and nature-positive economic activity. Working with Indigenous Australians in a co-design capacity, we will listen to their unique knowledge and understanding of the land on their terms. There will be free, prior and informed consent for projects on their lands or waters. There will be employment opportunities for Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders.

The nature repair market will work in line with the carbon market. This will be made simpler by the fact that they will have the same regulator. This alignment not only encourages carbon farming projects but also, in turn, delivers biodiversity benefits. This speaks directly to the recent review of carbon crediting led by Professor Ian Chubb. We're listening to the experts and ensuring learnings from the carbon market have shaped the bill. This bill will require that biodiversity certificates have integrity and represent an actual environmental improvement. This helps buyers invest with confidence. It will also have an independent expert committee that will ensure projects can deliver high-quality nature-positive outcomes. This is a key integrity measure this government is putting in place. Ongoing compliance requirements will also be monitored and reported on to ensure projects are implemented in accordance with the rules and procedures. The regulator will of course play an important role in this.

The Nature Positive Plan will also help restore public accountability, trust and transparency. Transparency is clearly important to our government. We will ensure that detailed information about projects and certificates will be available on a public register. Additional information will also be published by the regulator and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. This will ensure additional oversight by the public and community. The department is also committed to working closely with the ACCC and ASIC. We want to ensure that certificates that are part of the nature repair market are reliable and that projects in the carbon and biodiversity markets are not impacted by misleading claims.

But, as I've alluded to, those opposite are not only opposing these measures and this bill; when they were in government, our environment was simply deteriorating on their watch. They received, when they were in government, so many reports showing this. One of the biggest issues was having an offset system. The Nature Positive Plan approaches biodiversity offsets in a new way. We're making a commitment to offsets being the last resort. This government is also designing a new national standard for matters of national environmental significance and environmental offsets. These standards will give us the confidence we need in using biodiversity offsets under Commonwealth laws. Projects under this scheme will not be used as offsets unless and until they meet these new standards. This government—our government—actually wants to protect our environment. Last year, the Minister for the Environment and Water released the official five-yearly report card on the Australian environment, the State of the environment report. The former minister, now Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Sussan Ley, refused to release this report to the Australian people. The opposition put their heads in the sand, thinking, 'If we ignore all these problems, they will simply go away.' They're not going to go away. That's just not true. That's just not our reality. Under the Liberal and National parties, there was a decade of damage and neglect to our environment.

The report that was released by us, the Labor government, tells us that our environment is deteriorating. It tells us that Australia has lost more mammal species to extinction than any other continent. It tells us that plastics are choking our oceans. It tells us that the flow in most Murray-Darling rivers has reached record low levels. It's no surprise, given the environmental neglect by the opposition when they were in government over the last decade. They axed climate laws, they failed to fix our broken environmental laws and the Leader of the Opposition, Peter Dutton, publicly laughed about our Pacific Island neighbours going underwater, as if it were a funny joke. They set recycling targets, I'll give them that, but they had no actual plan to deliver them. They voted against the Safeguard Mechanism. They halved our protected areas of marine parks. They slashed billions of dollars from our environmental department. They've left this government, the new Labor government, with plenty of work to do. We recognise that. But it's no wonder the Australian people had had enough of them and their neglect. That's why today's bill is so important. It is important, as it gives our environment the attention and the support that it needs.

I can't talk about positive outcomes for nature through this bill without also referring to one of my local residents in my electorate of Wills. Her name is Anne McGregor. She is President of the Merri Creek Management Committee and Vice-President of the Friends of Merri Creek, and she was awarded an OAM this week for her services to conservation. Anne's pivotal volunteer role has helped restore and repair Merri Creek and its surrounding areas—the nature in our area. Anne and her husband, Bruce McGregor, helped establish the Brunswick Merri Creek Action Group, which has advocated to protect and support important community areas and nature. I want to take a moment in this place to congratulate Anne and acknowledge the incredible role she plays in protecting the environment and protecting the nature around us in our electorate of Wills, in the northern part of Melbourne.

I also want to reiterate this government's genuine commitment to repairing and restoring our environment through this bill. And, of course, as part of the Albanese government's first budget, we delivered our commitment to secure much-needed investments to recover and revitalise two creeks in my electorate, particularly—Merri Creek and Moonee Ponds Creek. We made a commitment of half a million dollars for Merri Creek and $2.16 million for Moonee Ponds Creek to remove the concrete, to renew those urban waterways that are so important as part of the local nature that can be enjoyed by our local communities.

This government is genuinely committed to ensuring that our environment and our precious sites can be looked after. We've already got a track record on it since we got elected. This bill helps us to collaborate, ensuring that we make it easier for people to repair the environment. This bill also creates a new market for investing in nature-positive outcomes. It will support our commitment to repair ecosystems and reverse species decline and extinction. It also creates more investment and employment opportunities for a nature-positive economy. This will be a world-first scheme.

Under our nature repair market, landowners can be rightfully paid for protecting and restoring the nature on their land. We'll make it easier for business, philanthropists and others to invest in repairing nature right across this wonderful continent. This bill will make it easier to protect and repair what we have, ensuring that nature is looked after for the future and, yes, for our kids and our grandkids. We've heard this being said by many members here. This is about future generations and our obligation and responsibility to do the best we can as lawmakers to protect our environment.

Debate adjourned.

Ordered that the resumption of the debate be made an order of the day for a later hour.

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