Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm proud to speak on the MPI topic put forward by the member for Clark—the need to urgently prioritise the passage of reforms to strengthen national environmental laws and protections to defend nature and address the extinction crisis. I've been in the parliament with the member for Clark for a long time. Whenever he puts a proposition forward, it's always worth listening to, and I commend his passion on this topic. I say up-front: personally I'm very supportive of the fact that we do have to do more, as recommended by Professor Samuel's report, but obviously we need to do so methodically and correctly.

I commend all of the speakers who have made contributions, even the stream-of-consciousness efforts. I particularly want to call out one speaker, and that's the member for Lingiari—the birthday girl—for her contribution. We have so much to learn about caring for this country, and we saw practical examples of that. I think all of us, even if we're in an urban environment, like the member for Brisbane's electorate, have a connection to country that can be enhanced by listening to our First Nations people, and to the experts, the scientists and the like, and making sure we get the legislation right. Personally, I think we need to have the concept of caring for country in section 51 of the Constitution. That's not a Labor Party position; it's just something I think we should do to ensure that all decisions in this nation are made in the best interests of country. But, whether it comes to the city, the bush, the beach or beyond the breakers, we need to make sure that what we're doing in the context of working towards net zero is actually nature-positive.

I go for a walk in my electorate every morning through some bushland where there are koalas and echidnas, even though I'm in an inner-city electorate. I know how uplifting that is for me and for everyone, whether they're wandering around Mount Isa or Innisfail, like the member for Kennedy can do—incredible parts of this country. We are all better for having that connection to some bit of Australia, be it urban, rural, remote or wherever.

I think every MP in this House and every senator—or nearly every senator—would agree that we should have that connection to the areas that we represent but that we need to do it in the context of science. Sadly, I saw on the weekend that the Nationals are still debating whether climate change is real. The world has moved on. They need to go and talk to their insurance companies or insurance brokers to understand how much the world has moved on and accepted the science. It's sad to see that there are still representatives debating that.

Obviously there are many things that we can do in the context of a government committed to reducing emissions by 43 per cent by 2030, which is just around the corner. It will take a lot of work, but we can also do our bit for the environment, as laid out in this motion by the member for Clark. There are things that we can do that will be a legacy for our grandchildren when they ask, 'What did you do in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan?' I know that we've done more in the last 12 months and provided more environmental water in the last 12 months than occurred in the previous nine years. We've doubled the funding to national parks like Uluru and Kakadu so that we're creating jobs on country, which gives purpose, gives dignity and changes lives. We're setting up this new Environmental Protection Agency to make sure that we've got a good, strong cop on the beat but also one that makes decisions more quickly so that business has certainty and things aren't lingering and being fought out in the courts. They'll make a decision and move on.

One thing I'm particularly concerned about, as someone that deals with their yellow bins and their green bins and the like in the city, is making sure that we're boosting recycling so that people are making decisions early on in the process about design and how things can be recycled appropriately so that we conserve prices but also make sure that we conserve these scarce natural resources. There's more to be done in that area, obviously.

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