Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Social Services) Share this | Hansard source

I too am very pleased to rise on this matter of very public importance. I acknowledge the member for Clark's long-term commitment to strengthening our environmental laws. That is an issue that is definitely shared by those of us on this side of the House and by many other members in this House. It is one that we are incredibly passionate about. Indeed, this is an issue that the Australian people voted for in last year's election because we had a decade of inaction prior to that. In fact, no government has done more on the environment and in terms of tackling climate change than the Albanese Labor government. We continue to take so much action, particularly because of the decade of inaction.

We are very proud of what this government is doing in terms of our targets for net zero and our Nature Positive Plan as well. For the first time in a decade we have a policy designed to reduce emissions, which is so vitally important, and make Australia a renewable energy superpower. We have been running fast and have hit the ground running on all of these measures together, along with our Nature Positive Plan, because of the inaction over the last decade.

I'll go through some of the action that we're taking and then get onto our Nature Positive Plan as well. Some of the actions include emission reduction targets of 43 per cent by 2030 and a clear path to net zero by 2050; $2 billion for green hydrogen; $1.6 billion for home and small business energy efficiency; passing the safeguard mechanism; $20 billion for Rewiring the Nation; establishing massive new offshore wind projects around the country; $3 billion on the National Reconstruction Fund for renewables and low-emission technologies; and, very importantly, setting up the new environment protection agency with much stronger laws, much quicker decisions and much better regulatory frameworks.

We've also doubled funding to national parks like Uluru and Kakadu to create jobs on country. We're delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, spending $1.2 billion to protect and restore the Great Barrier Reef, and proclaiming 10 new Indigenous protected areas and doubling the number of rangers. Under this government, the Albanese Labor government, Australia is leading the world again. We are working incredibly hard to clean up the mess the Liberals and Nationals left us, because we know how vitally important it is to protect and preserve our environment for future generations.

We are very proud to be reforming our very broken environmental laws. Under the previous government, under the Liberals and Nationals, they in fact trashed those environmental laws. We saw it time and time again, how they watered down the EPBC and took no action in this area. Professor Graham Samuel's 2019 review into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act found:

The EPBC Act is out dated and requires fundamental reform.

It continues:

… Australians do not trust that the … Act is delivering for the environment, for business or for the community.

That is indeed true. Nature was being destroyed. Businesses were waiting too long for decisions. This has to change.

We responded to Professor Samuel's review and announced our nature-positive plan: better for the environment and also better for business. We want an economy that is nature-positive to stop the decline and repair nature. We are building towards this legislation using three basic principles: clear national standards of environmental protection, improving and speeding up decisions, and building trust and integrity in our environmental laws.

Our nature-positive plan will be better for the environment for a number of reasons: by delivering those stronger laws to protect nature; to protect precious plants, animals and places; and for the first time these laws will introduce standards. Decisions must meet the standards that describe the environmental outcomes we want to achieve. This will ensure decisions made will protect our threatened species and ecosystems and, importantly, let that new environmental protection agency make decisions and properly enforce them.

As I said, our nature-positive plan will be better for business as well, with more certainty and less red tape. This plan is indeed a win-win: a win for the environment and a win for business. It is incredibly extensive, and we have very positive responses to this plan from Greenpeace:

The reforms outlined are a very welcome and long-overdue step to better protecting Australia's extraordinary wildlife, forests and natural environment.

The Business Council of Australia said:

Business welcomes the government's commitment to implementing recommendations of the Samuel Review—

and many other groups have welcomed the announcement, like the Australian Conservation Foundation and the Environmental Defenders Office.

We are, and we have always been, committed to working with environment and business communities and First Nation groups to make sure we get this right into the future. As has been said before, the legislation will be released as an exposure draft by the end of 2023, and we are working constructively right across the community to make sure that we do in fact get this right.

Of course, another important aspect in protecting our environment is protecting threatened species. Unlike the previous government, the Albanese Labor government does not accept that extinctions are inevitable. What we accept and acknowledge is that we need to act. It's important that we do what we can to understand the threats to certain species and to use the most up-to-date advice in our capacity to protect them. Since we've been in government, we have been taking strong action to protect threatened species. We are investing over $500 million in directly helping threatened species in and tackling feral species too. There's over $224 million for the Saving Native Species Program, including $70 million for koalas; $440 million for the Natural Heritage Trust for programs to conserve threatened species; double the funding for national parks, which is so vitally important; triple the funding to clean up and restore urban rivers and catchments. There are many other policies as well, which include delivering our Murray-Darling Basin Plan and $1.2 billion for the Great Barrier Reef. We have had an extensive array of investment in ensuring we are doing all that we can to protect our threatened species.

As I said at the beginning, we are very proud to be acting on climate change because the Australian people voted for this. They were sick of the inaction of the previous government. That's why we've taken that strong action, particularly that investment in renewable energy, which is the cheapest form of energy, and that's why we've got, and are investing in, nation-building initiatives such as Rewiring the Nation. We know this is vitally important because we actually appreciate the value of renewable energy and the importance of that. I particularly want to add that, in regional areas like mine, not only is there great enthusiasm as we transition to renewables, but it is a massive economic driver for regional areas as well. People in the country absolutely recognise that and are very complimentary of what we're doing.

We have also legislated Australia's target of a 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2050. As I've said, there's the offshore wind industry and Rewiring the Nation—a whole range of measures in place. That's what is at the heart of taking action on climate change: a whole series of measures, those massive investments supporting households and business, and legislated targets. In the time that we have been in government we have done a huge amount because there was so much inaction over those previous 10 years from the Liberals and Nationals. In fact, we know, those of us that were here, that there were more than 20 failed policies over that time. It seemed every week there was another policy that they just didn't land at all. There was no desire from them to address this pressing issue, unlike from those of us in the Labor Party.

Since that time, in the last year, the only policy we've seen from the Liberals and Nationals is the one they keep rehashing, and that is of course nuclear power. We hear it every couple of weeks. Whenever we talk about energy, what do they say? Nuclear power. As I've said many times in this House, many communities right throughout the nation, and particularly in my electorate, are completely opposed to the use of nuclear power for a whole variety of reasons. It is far too dangerous and far too expensive. We know that a small reactor would cost a massive $5 billion to build, and they need about 80 of them around Australia at least. Of course they won't tell us where they'll go, and we know these reactors would have to be near water. Communities like mine—in fact, communities up, down and around the country—would be little bit worried about what the plans are when it comes rolling out nuclear energy. And that is all we ever seem to hear from the Liberals and Nationals.

Those of us on this side have an absolutely huge, strong commitment to acting on climate change, protecting our environment and protecting our threatened species, and we are doing that by strengthening the EPBC Act, which is at the heart of this and gives us the basis to keep taking this strong action. This act, which was watered down by the Liberals and Nationals, is the one we are focusing on, through massive consultation, to make sure we get it right. We have to get it right. We have to get it right for future generations because this is our chance to protect our environment and our threatened species, and the Albanese Labor government is committed to doing that.

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