Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

With offsets in the bill, this would have been a scheme to effectively greenwash to facilitate nature destruction. Now, as a result of strong opposition from the Greens and stakeholders, Labor has agreed to completely scrap biodiversity offsets from the bill. The original Nature Repair Market Bill—and I note that it's still called that on the screen—will now be renamed the Nature Repair Bill, as it will provide a voluntary system, as the minister mentioned, for private investment and philanthropy to protect and restore biodiversity on private land without offsets. Our water, our environment, our climate, are all one precious, interlinked ecosystem. Scrapping those dodgy offsets that would facilitate the actual destruction of nature and ensuring that damaging projects undergo proper environmental assessment are both critical to meaningfully restoring biodiversity and protecting our climate and our communities. Thankfully Labor has finally heeded Greens calls, and this recrafted bill will effectuate the delivery of these significant environmental reforms. Make no mistake: the environment minister has the power to stop gas mines and fracking, and we will be watching closely and doing everything that we can to ensure that Labor actually uses these powers to stop the climate-destroying, catastrophic Beetaloo and Burrup Hub projects. Our future depends on it.

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