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

The former environment minister, who did nothing during her term, loves to interject. Wouldn't it be great if only she'd ever had the chance to do a single thing? To be fair, she hid a report.

I want to say to the Greens political party: you have the opportunity to vote in the Senate for stronger powers for an EPA and for stronger penalties—changing maximum penalties for wrongdoing in the environment from under $15 million to $780 million. Is that the sort of thing you'd expect the Greens to support? Yes, it kind of is. They have the opportunity to vote for millions of dollars of extra investment to protect threatened species through the establishment of Environment Information Australia. Apparently, they're not interested in that either. The Greens political party have a chance to vote for stronger protections for nature. They should take it.

Incidentally, those sitting opposite also have the opportunity to see better, faster decisions made for business. We are investing around $100 million to speed up approvals. Environmental approvals under this government are on time at a rate twice as high as under the previous government. We've already made significant improvements since the former minister was in charge. We'd like to see further improvements as well, along with better environmental protections. If those up there in the Greens political party really want stronger protections for nature, they should tell their friends in the Senate to vote for stronger protections for nature.

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