Fiona Phillips (Gilmore, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment. The Australia state of the environment 2021 report found that nature in Australia is in a poor state and deteriorating. What is the Albanese Labor government doing to reverse this trend to protect and repair Australia's environment?

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

I want to thank the member for Gilmore, who represents one of the most beautiful parts of Australia and does it as a fierce advocate for the environment in her electorate. Of course, our government is getting on with our goal of delivering a nature-positive Australia, which means protecting more of our natural environment for our kids and our grandkids to enjoy, protecting more of what's precious, repairing more of what's damaged and managing nature better for the future. What a contrast to a decade of neglect and destruction by those opposite. We saw what was in the State of the environment report and what was in the Water for the Environment Special Account after we came into government. Those opposite kept those secret. We know they received a report from Professor Graeme Samuel about our broken environment laws. They didn't act on that. And, of course, one of the best things they could have done to protect the environment is act on climate change. They had 22 separate energy policies and didn't land a single one.

In contrast, we are protecting more of what is precious. We are introducing stronger laws to protect our environment—better for nature, better for business. That's why the environment groups and business have welcomed that. We're setting up an environment protection agency, because we know we need a strong cop on the beat. We're working towards zero new extinctions, with a quarter of a billion dollars dedicated to that, including for things like the koala hospital in Port Stephens, in the member for Paterson's electorate. We're repairing more of what is damaged. We're establishing a nature repair market. We're restoring our urban rivers and waterways, including in Gilmore, with $1½ million for the Shoalhaven River there. Blue carbon projects around Australia—Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania—will see mangroves, seagrass meadows and saltmarshes restored. We're eradicating feral cats on Christmas Island. It's so—

Recycled minister there! We're managing nature better for the future, cracking down on plastic pollution and investing in plastic recycling, as I said yesterday. We're doubling the number of Indigenous rangers. In the electorate of Lingiari, we're investing in Kakadu National Park, including building a new crocodile-viewing platform. And we're delivering on the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, after a decade of deliberate sabotage from those opposite. This is just a small taste of what this government is doing to restore nature, to deliver on our Nature Positive Plan, after a decade of destruction from those opposite.