Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that following the dire State of the Environment report released in 2021, the Government promised to act decisively to turn the tide in this country from nature destruction to nature repair;

(2) places on record its concern that:

(a) in December 2023, the Government legislated an expansion of the water trigger in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act);

(b) the Government now refers to that step (one part of the promised broader environment reforms) as 'Stage 1' of its nature positive reforms; and

(c) despite this new emphasis on the importance of the expanded water trigger, fossil fuel projects which are caught by the trigger have not been referred to or called in by the Minister for the Environment and Water for assessment;

(3) further notes its concern that:

(a) the Government has now introduced 'Stage 2' of its nature positive reforms (being the establishment of Environment Protection Australia (EPA) and Environment Information Australia);

(b) to be effective, the EPA should have an independent board, clear, legislated objectives, and be properly funded from commencement;

(c) the Government has now resiled from its commitment to introduce 'Stage 3' of the nature positive reforms (comprising the substantive, urgent and significant reform of the underlying environment laws) in this term of government; and

(d) the Government has no current plan to implement its promise to enhance protections for critical habitat or threatened species in this term of government; and

(4) calls on the Government, as part of its 'Stage 2' nature positive reforms, to:

(a) remove two current exemptions in the EPBC Act which are catastrophic to its stated aim of conserving critical habitat and preventing extinctions (being the Regional Forestry Agreement exemption and the continuous use exemption in the EPBC Act); and

(b) integrate consideration of climate change into the EPBC Act, in recognition of the threat posed by climate change to nature and to Matters of National Environmental Significance.

I rise today to speak on behalf of the people of Mackellar and millions of other ordinary Australians across the country to express their deep concern about the state of Australia's environment, and, in particular, their dismay at the government's decision to delay its promised overhaul of our national environment laws: the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

The most recent State of the environment report was completed in 2021. The coalition government, at the time, hid that report, and it was not released to the public until Minister Plibersek did so in July 2022. The report concluded:

… as a result of increasing pressures from climate change, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and resource extraction … many species and ecosystems are increasingly threatened.

…   …   …

… Our inability to adequately manage pressures will continue to result in species extinctions and deteriorating ecosystem condition …

The report contained many alarming facts, including that more mammal species have become extinct in Australia than on any other continent, that Australia continues to have one of the highest rates of species decline amongst OECD countries, that there are now more foreign plant species in Australia than native species, that at least 19 Australian ecosystems have been reported as showing signs of collapse or near collapse, and that 7.7 million hectares of habitat for threatened species was cleared or substantially degraded between 2000 and 2017. It made for truly sobering reading and clearly demonstrated that our current environment laws are way too weak and that enforcement of these weak laws is ineffective.

Six months after releasing the report—over 18 months ago now—the Minister for the Environment and Water stated that Australia's environment laws are broken and nature is being destroyed. She said,

Our reforms are seeking to turn the tide in this country—from nature destruction to nature repair.

However, the most crucial part of those reforms—the strengthening and reforming of the laws that actually protect our environment—has been postponed. It has been kicked down the road. Yes, we understand that these reforms are complex, but they are also extremely urgent. These reforms have been relegated to stage 3, and no timeline has been set for these substantive reforms to be enacted. It seems increasingly likely that they will not be introduced prior to the next election.

It is a positive that this week we will be debating stage 2 of the environment reforms, including the government's plan to establish an environment protection agency and an environment information agency. The new EPA will have stronger enforcement powers and penalties, which is good news. However, it is hard to see how it can protect our environment when it will be administering the very same laws the minister described, just 18 months ago, as 'broken'.

A key weakness of the EPBC Act is that it contains major exemptions for certain activities, such as native forest logging and land clearing for agriculture, so that these activities can proceed without having to be assessed for their environmental impacts under the act. The regional forestry agreement exemption, for example, means that even when logging projects are to occur in critical habitat for threatened species they still don't need to be assessed under the EPBC Act for unacceptable impacts. In light of the extreme state of environmental degradation, the RFA exemption is anachronistic and, as Professor Samuel, author of the State of the environment report, said in the recent Senate hearing:

We ought to get rid of those RFAs. They should never have been introduced in the first place.

The other egregious flaw in the EPBC Act is the continuous use exemption, which permits land users to clear old regrowth, even in the habitat of threatened or migratory species. It is being used as a loophole by farmers to undertake far more intensive and extensive land clearing. In just one example, last year more than 670 hectares of land was bulldozed near Gladstone in Queensland. The land was cleared for beef pasture, but it is within an area mapped as habitat for 37 EPBC-listed threatened species, including the koala, the northern quoll and the greater glider. This type of destruction of critical habitat for threatened species is permissible under our current, weak national environment laws.

These egregious exemptions need to be repealed immediately, not at some unspecified time in the future that may or may not ever happen. We call on the government to honour its promises by repealing the RFA and continuous use exemptions, now, in stage 2.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm glad to speak to this motion, and I thank the member for Mackellar for bringing it forward for debate. I say at the outset that we're not delaying this critical area of reform; we've begun to deliver on it already. We'll do more of that this week, and we'll keep going on that path until the job is done.

As the member for Mackellar says, the basic situation with respect to Australia's environment is not hard to understand. It's not a heartening story that the Australia state of the environment 2021 report found our environment is poor and deteriorating. The previous government hid that report out of embarrassment at their inaction. In 2020 Professor Graeme Samuel produced his independent review of the EPBC Act and found that Australia's natural environment and iconic places are in an overall state of decline and are under increasing threat. What did the coalition government do in response to that report? Sadly, nothing. So we come to government under no illusion that our country's environment and biodiversity have undergone significant harm and are facing extraordinary pressures—especially now, through climate change—and we're responding to that crisis which was utterly neglected for a decade by a coalition government that slashed funding to the environment department by 40 per cent.

As the member for Mackellar acknowledges, it's a large and complex task. But it is urgent, and the Minister for the Environment and Water has acted on the basis there is no time to waste. That's why we have pushed out the environmental protection effort in every direction, getting on with the larger regulatory reform task while at the same time pushing ahead immediately with a number of restorative measures. Indeed, in the first two years of the Albanese Labor government we've tripled the size of the Macquarie Island Marine Park, adding a protected marine zone larger than the size of Germany. We've kicked off the $200 million Urban Rivers and Catchments Program. We've made the global 30 by 30 commitment, and we'll conserve, separately, 30 per cent of our land and marine territory by 2030. We've joined the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution. We've expanded our Antarctic science program. We're investing $23 million over the next year to develop a new national circular economy framework, and we've provided $224.5 million over the next four years through the Saving Native Species Program to support the recovery of our unique plants, animals and ecological communities.

We've done those things while working steadily to achieve EPBC reform—the first instalment of which we delivered as quickly as possible last year, with an expanded and strengthened water trigger as promised. Now we're delivering the next stage of the nature positive reforms, with the creation of Australia's first independent environmental protection agency—a long-awaited and massive reform—and, alongside that, the critically important new function of Environment Information Australia.

For too long we simply haven't been able to see clearly the joined-up picture of Australia's environmental condition and biodiversity. That's resulted in a piecemeal approach to assessing impact, which has put our environment on the path to death by a thousand cuts. We cannot allow that to continue, and that's why we're implementing the recommendations of the Samuel review to significantly update Australia's national environmental laws. It's important to recognise that the approach we're taking to deliver that reform is endorsed by Graeme Samuel himself; it's important for people to recognise that.

The current EPBC Act is more than 1,000 pages long, and the complexity of the reform task is considerable. The consultation process to date has been broad, searching and extensive. While I've heard from lots of people who understandably want this reform completed as quickly as possible, I've also heard from lots of community members and, indeed, environmental stakeholders who keep insisting, quite rightly, that consultation cannot be rushed. This reform cannot be rushed. That kind of balance between rapid reform towards a much-needed change and proper consultative engagement that delivers high-quality and lasting reform is precisely the challenge of good government. I say with great respect to the member for Mackellar that it's often been the case with members of the crossbench that one day we'll hear things aren't being done quickly enough and the next day we'll hear things are being too done too quickly. That's politics, I guess; certainly it's convenient if you want to create the impression from time to time that there's something not quite right about the government, which—hallelujah—the crossbench is always here to help us correct.

I understand the strength of logic that is driving the call on us, the Australian government, from the broader Australian community to make some stark and substantial changes as quickly and as resolutely as can be done. That has always been a huge focus of my work. People should know that in Tanya Plibersek, the member for Sydney, they have a Minister for the Environment who is absolutely committed and absolutely indefatigable in her application to that task.

Finally, let me say clearly that, contrary to the terms of this motion, we have not resiled from anything. The Australian environment desperately needs a period of stable, sustained reform in government—an Albanese Labor government.

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia's natural environment is one of the defining features of our nation. The nature is in crisis. The 2021 State of the environment report pulled back the curtain on the devastating damage that is being done to our environment. We have the highest rate of deforestation in the developed world. We have the highest rate of animal extinction of any country and we are doing irreparable damage to the Great Barrier Reef. Threatened species have been declining between two per cent and three per cent per year since 2000, meaning we have seen a 60 per cent decline in Australia's threatened species index in the past two decades. Add to this the existential threat posed by climate pollution and our environment has never been in greater danger. Our failure to address the decline is in no small part due to our broken environmental laws. The EPBC Act was introduced under John Howard a quarter of a century ago, and the laws are still stuck in the past. They don't protect the environment and, frankly, they don't work for business either, who are tied up in a slow and process-driven approach to environmental approvals.

The minister has rightly acknowledged the need for reform, and I know she is sincere in her commitment to achieve this, but more than two years into parliament we don't have any legislation to address the fundamental flaws in our national environmental law. There are numerous parts of this law that require reform, so I am going to focus my comments on two, including identifying things the government could move on now, even without a full review of the EPBC Act.

First, we need to end the exemption of regional forest agreements, which allow destructive native forest logging to continue unchecked. Native forest logging causes huge environmental damage across the country, affecting over 250 threatened species the past two decades in southern New South Wales alone. The destruction of koala habitat that's permitted in these exemptions in our national environment law is mostly to make low-value products like paper pulp, which we could get from plantations instead. As well as the environmental damage, native forest logging destroys an incredibly powerful carbon sink, so much so that experts estimate stopping native forest logging in southern New South Wales would be the state's largest carbon abatement project. At a time when we're fighting to meet our targets, this seems absolutely so obvious. It would also be good for a New South Wales taxpayers, who have been forced to subsidise the loss-making state Forestry Corporation to the tune of nearly $30 million over the past couple of years. Native forest logging is bad for the environment, it is bad for climate and it is bad for taxpayers. It needs to stop and that means we have to reform our broken environmental laws. Even if the government isn't going to do a whole-scale review of EPBC Act in this parliament, the government could move now to stop regional forestry agreements so that we could at least stop native forest logging in this term of parliament and that's what I'm calling on the government to do.

The second area I'd like to talk about is climate and why it's so important that it's integrated into our national environmental laws, because the truth is global heating is having a devastating impact on nature, with rapidly rising ocean temperatures, floods, fires, droughts and extreme weather causing enormous damage to our environment. Our main environmental law does absolutely nothing about this. The EPBC Act does not require emissions to be considered when evaluating project proposals and does not even require them to be disclosed. As a result, 740 fossil fuel projects have been approved since the beginning of the EPBC Act, including four new coalmines in this parliament. Because climate is ignored, our environmental laws don't recognise the positive long-term benefits to the nature of renewable energy projects that reduce climate pollution. The government has indicated a willingness to incorporate climate into our national environmental laws in a manner consistent with policies like the safeguard mechanism, but the can has been kicked down the road and we simply can't wait any longer.

I'd like to acknowledge that the road to reform is not smooth. It's a complex process fraught with conflicting opinions, but I know community support is there. Last week I was invited to speak at a community forum hosted by the ACF Eastern Sydney group and the fantastic Stephen Lightfoot. More than 200 people filled the Randwick Town Hall, all desperately asking for reform of our broken environmental laws and, most urgently also, for our native forest logging to be addressed. There is huge appetite for change from the community. Now we need people in this place to show the courage to act.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the government were elected, we faced an environmental crisis that couldn't be ignored. Over the past decade, under the Liberals, Australia witnessed a dramatic decline in the health of our environment—a period marked by a series of policy failures and inaction that left our natural landscapes vulnerable and deteriorating.

The Australia state of the environment 2021 report, which the Deputy Leader of the Opposition received but chose to hide until after the election, painted a devastating picture. This report revealed that Australia's environment was in dire straits, with our unique ecosystems and wildlife facing unprecedented threats. It revealed that Australia had lost more mammal species to extinction than any other continent, that we had habitat loss equivalent to the size of Tasmania and that rivers in the Murray-Darling Basin were at record-low flows. On the Liberals' watch, invasive species flourished, native vegetation was cleared at alarming rates and our oceans were choked with plastic pollution.

Much like our current debate over renewable energy, the Liberals and Nationals take a similar stance on environmental policy, one that is anchored in delay and denial. You can't fix a problem that you can't see, and, on the environment, the Liberals and Nationals see no issue to fix. They ignored the critical recommendations of the Samuel review into environmental laws, which called for substantial reforms to protect our natural assets. Instead, they maintained a regulatory framework that failed to safeguard our environment effectively. Their approach to recycling was equally lacklustre. They set targets without any concrete plans to achieve them, happy to release a press release but with nothing to underpin it.

The Liberals halved the highly protected areas of marine parks, exposing our marine biodiversity to increased threats. Additionally, they slashed funding for the environment department by 40 per cent, crippling the very agency tasked with protecting our natural heritage. The decade under the Liberals was one of wilful environmental neglect, marked by a failure to act in the face of clear and present danger. Theirs is a poor record of missed opportunities and neglect that have left our environment worse off.

Our government inherited this mess. Professor Graeme Samuel, author of the 2020 review, said only a few months ago:

The government and the minister are doing everything exactly as they should be doing. I don't underestimate the complexity of what has to be done …

The task to undo the damage from the Liberals is enormous. The task to gain consensus and bring the community with us is enormous. But I was elected, and the government was elected, to address those challenges methodically and with purpose. Our commitment to reversing the damage of the past and ensuring a sustainable future is evident in every environmental policy, every environmental program and every piece of legislation on the environment that we've introduced into this House.

Our establishment of the world's first nature repair market represents a groundbreaking initiative to encourage the restoration and protection of natural ecosystems. Our expansion of the water trigger will protect our precious water resources. And the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and Environment Information Australia, before the House at the minute, is a huge step forward. It's absurd that Australia does not have a national EPA, and the government must fix that—and, with the support of this parliament, we will.

The EPA will operate as an independent authoritative body with robust enforcement powers, ensuring that our environmental laws, current and future, are upheld and that they are actively enforced. This new agency will be instrumental in holding violators accountable and maintaining the integrity of our environmental protections.

Environment Information Australia will play a crucial role in providing consistent, reliable data on the state of our environment, and, by integrating data collections and reporting, EIA will enable better informed decision-making and greater accountability.

We are taking and will continue to take action on climate and the environment.

We will fight against the Liberal plans to oppose and delay our efforts to decarbonise our economy because we just have to; we cannot rest on our laurels. The environmental challenges we face as a nation are immense and complex. Our environmental reforms cannot end just with what we've announced—there is much more to do. We need to finish the job because the alternative is not an option. Australia deserves and expects a government that not only speaks about environmental protection but acts decisively to achieve it. We must ensure that our efforts remain unwavering and that our commitment to these reforms remains steadfast. As long as I have the privilege to work in this place, I'll work very hard to deliver the full tranche of reforms needed to secure a nature-positive Australia.

Debate adjourned.