Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Water. Even though the climate crisis is the biggest threat to our environment, the Minister for Resources said last week that the decision on the future of coal and gas should be made by overseas boardrooms, not by Australia. Do you agree, or in next week's response to the review of our environment laws will you announce a climate trigger so that the impact of climate pollution has to be taken into account when considering new coal and gas mines?

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

I want to thank the Leader of the Greens for that question. It goes to two issues. The first is the government's response to the Samuel review, which was looking at the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Like many things those opposite did, they received the Samuel review about two years ago and never really responded to it. So, of course, we will respond to the Samuel review. The Samuel review found two things. The first is that environmental laws have presided over a worsening of our environment. We saw that with the State of the environment report that those opposite also kept secret, and it found that approvals processes were slow and cumbersome. We want to do two things. We want to give better environmental protections and faster, clearer decision-making, and our response will go to that.

On the issue of coal and gas projects, what we have consistently said on this side is that they will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. They'll have to meet our environmental laws. They'll have to stack up environmentally and economically. That position hasn't changed.