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

I don't want to talk about every amendment as it comes up, because I know that we've got a lot of business before us in the House. I know that there's a lot of complexity because this legislation is about enacting the London protocol—so members have to have a good understanding of what's in the London protocol—and it adds to existing protections that we already have.

I want to reiterate my offer to the crossbench that we are very happy to keep working on the detail of this with you, to give you more detailed briefings about the purpose of the bill and what it gives effect to. This bill is simply about giving effect to the commitments, the obligations, that we have under the London protocol that we signed up to in 2009 and under the amendments to the London protocol that we signed up to in 2013.

The member for Warringah was talking about how important action on climate change is and how important it is for us to be nature positive. We agree. That's not what this bill about though. We have our commitment to 30 per cent of our lands and 30 per cent of our waters being protected by 2030. Just last week I announced the 10 new Indigenous protected areas that will make up part of that—tens of millions of additional hectares of land that will be protected and preserved because of that. We've doubled our funding to national parks. You mentioned blue carbon. That's why we're investing in blue carbon. We know that blue carbon is one of the most effective ways that we can suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. We're doing all of these things, but that's not what this bill is about. That's not what this policy is about.

A number of the member for Mackellar's suggestions are not covered in this legislation because they're covered in other legislation and other bills. The current sea dumping act already requires consideration of treaties or conventions that Australia is party to for all permit types. So you don't have to have specific listing of particular agreements, like the Paris Agreement. It's already covered. The granting of the sea dumping permit doesn't relieve the permit holder of any obligation to comply with any other law of the Commonwealth, state or territory that's applicable to that activity. So, the Climate Change Act 2022 and the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Act 2007 are standalone pieces of legislation with individual regulatory requirements that have to be met whether or not this permit is granted. It doesn't relieve you of the obligations under other pieces of legislation.

Regarding no public money being spent on CCS—well, we've just cancelled a $250 million spend that those opposite previously had in the budget on this, for the very reason that we don't think public funding should be spent on it. It would be interesting I think for members to be aware of the fact, if they're not already, that Minister Madeleine King has committed $12 million to review the environmental management regime for offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage to make sure it is working as intended to decarbonise the economy, and of course I'll be working very closely with Minister King on that review.

Finally, while I have the opportunity: there are substantial penalties within the existing act that are replicated in this bill to apply to the new permit categories. Specifically, there are criminal penalties, including potential imprisonment, that apply. I know people are very keen to see proper accountability for people who don't do the right thing. We agree: there isn't a conflict here with our existing laws, and certainly those existing responsibilities continue, and we'll continue to make sure that we enforce them.

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