Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Australia's international leadership when it comes to the environment, and I would like to thank my Labor colleagues for their contributions to this conversation.

Prior to the last federal election, we promised that we would provide a fresh approach when it came to matters of leadership and the environment. We committed to doing things differently, and I am proud to stand here today and inform the House that this is exactly what we have done. These commitments involved renewing Australia's relationships abroad, particularly in the Pacific, listening to our neighbours and working in the region for peace and prosperity. At the same time, we promised to put the environment front and centre—back where it belongs. And that's what we have done.

We on this side of the House knew that without a serious environmental agenda it would be impossible to establish trust in the Pacific and that without global cooperation all our good intentions on the environment would fall short. We took this vision of an environmental agenda and a renewed relationship with our neighbours to the Australian people at the last election, and we have spent the last two years delivering on this.

It was pleasing to see that our environmental leadership was not lost on Australians or our international friends abroad. In fact, one of the first actions of the Minister for the Environment and Water was to attend the 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference. The minister and this Labor government wanted to send a clear message to the world that Australia was once again accepting our responsibility as a global leader on the environment. We know that one person who welcomed this message was the French President, Emmanuel Macron, when he told the Australian contingent:

You're back … we need you in the Indo-Pacific strategy, and climate and oceans is part of the strategy …

We know too that protecting nature is a human rights issue. It is an economic opportunity, and it is also clearly a foreign policy and security issue. Our international environmental leadership was demonstrated from the start of our term, when, immediately upon taking office, our government submitted stronger climate targets to the United Nations. We went on to legislate net zero by 2050, and we passed our safeguard reforms through the parliament. We doubled the rate of renewable projects being approved, and we began the process of getting cheaper, cleaner renewables into our energy grid. This is how we become a renewable energy superpower at home.

We know that this environmental leadership is already important and becoming increasingly essential to our relationships overseas. For example, climate change and clean energy are now officially the third pillar of our US alliance, and we have signed an official agreement with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, working to protect the environment and share critical information and data.

The minister for the environment also led Australia's delegation to Montreal for the UN Biodiversity Conference. It was here where we campaigned for a new global agreement to protect nature in every country. This campaigning contributed to 196 countries agreeing to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This is a landmark agreement to stop new extinctions, to halt the spread of invasive species, to restore degraded environments and to protect 30 per cent of the planet's land and sea by 2030. As the Australian Conservation Foundation said afterwards, for the first time in a long time, Australia played a leading role in improving the agreement. It was so pleasing to see Australians, led by the minister for the environment, leading from the front in Montreal and the delegation as a force for ambition.

We're implementing the ambition demonstrated in Montreal here at home. It's very important in terms of our standing as global leaders in this space. We're delivering on our '30 by 30' commitment, protecting 30 per cent of our land and sea by the end of this decade. I am really proud that, since coming to office, we have added an extra 40 million hectares of land and sea to areas under protection. We're also delivering on our pledge to stop new extinctions in Australia with our stronger national environmental laws.

Of course, we're also setting up a new environmental protection agency, Environment Protection Australia, to enforce those stronger laws on the ground, and with our Nature Repair Market we are bringing new funding to the work of protection and restoration. We're investing more than $500 million to save native species and deal with weeds and feral predators. By adopting targets domestically and updating our national biodiversity strategy, we breathe life into our international agreements and we encourage other countries to follow our lead.

We know that our oceans, by their very nature, are global, which is why we must also deal with the third element of our triple planetary crisis by fighting for an ambitious global treaty on plastic pollution. Our neighbours in the Pacific see the terrible impact plastics are having on this region. In the ocean to Australia's north, we are pulling up ghost nets that have drifted into our water. These nets are six miles long and killing turtles, dolphins, sharks and fish. The Minister for the Environment and Water has been exceptionally clear in saying that she wants to see a plastic-pollution-free Pacific in our lifetime—as do I, and I know my constituents in Chisholm want to see that too.

In November last year, Australia joined the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, a coalition to end plastic pollution by 2040. We're seeking a treaty with binding international laws which push countries to clean up the pollution that is literally choking our environment. We also want to see producers take responsibility for the plastics that they are generating and to minimise demand for plastics in the first place.

I'm passionate about strong action to address climate change and I am so pleased to see the leadership from the minister for the environment in taking a stand on the issues that I know matter to so many in our communities. Better action on climate and the environment is one of the reasons I chose to run for parliament. I saw the years of inaction on climate change by those opposite and felt compelled to run and be part of a positive change for our environment. I wanted to be a part of an environment that delivered real action for climate change and on environmental leadership. I wanted to push for this change on behalf of my community.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Proceedings suspended from 16:47 to 17:00

As I was saying earlier, I wanted to be part of a government that delivered real action on climate change and environmental leadership. I wanted to push for this change within government on behalf of my community because I know my community in Chisholm shares my deep concerns about climate change.

We have many local environmental groups who do important work advocating and caring for our beautiful local nature reserves. I've said before in this place that I regularly meet with these groups to discuss both local environmental concerns and their larger concerns about climate change and Australian leadership on matters of the environment and nature. I want to acknowledge these local groups that are making a positive difference for our environment: the Australian Conservation Foundation Community Chisholm, Friends of Damper Creek Conservation Reserve, the KooyongKoot Alliance, Friends of Scotchmans Creek and Valley Reserve, and Baby Boomers for Climate Change Action.

We're all on a journey here, a journey supporting the Pacific and showing our leadership to the rest of the world while doing the necessary work we need to do at home. Dealing with our triple planetary crisis on climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss is an enormous challenge, but it is a challenge we must take on. We must continue to work every day to protect more of what is precious and restore what is damaged, and I'm really proud to be a part of a government that takes our international environmental leadership seriously.

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