Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Wentworth for these amendments. The government will be supporting all of these amendments. These amendments will enable the proponent to easily choose and control whether any project that they are involved in can be used as an environmental offset even after that project is onsold—if it's sold on to future owners. When applying for a biodiversity certificate, proponents will be asked to confirm whether the certificate can be used as an offset. That information will be included on the Nature Repair Market register so the public can very easily see the chosen purpose of the project.

I also say to the member for Wentworth and the crossbench that the design of the register will be maximum transparency. My intention is that members of the public will be part of the scheme, making sure that projects do what they say, do what they promised. One of the problems with the offsets that are used currently is that there is little oversight. Project proponents can commit to offsets that are very rarely checked over the years. This will give us the transparency and the searchable data that we need to make sure that projects continue to do what they promised in the first instance. The certificates' status would be able to be changed without the project proponents' agreement. That's very important if certificates are onsold. That'll apply even if the certificate has been sold to a third party.

I want to thank the member for Wentworth for the amendment and commend it to the House.

Question agreed to.

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