Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, yesterday your government approved a $1 billion Gina Rinehart-backed, koala-habitat-destroying gas project with over 150 new gas wells able to run until 2080. Prime Minister, in the middle of a climate crisis, why back billionaires to open more coal and gas, and will the Prime Minister reverse this decision?

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

I thank the member for Ryan for her question. As we said yesterday and as we've been saying all along, our government's priority is to get more renewables approved and more renewables into our energy system. The project that was approved yesterday is a largely domestic gas project that will support the manufacture of glass, bricks, cement and food packaging. As for the misinformation about koala habitat, the member for Ryan is absolutely wrong. In fact, one of the conditions of approval for this project is that koala breeding and foraging habitat must be protected.

I think it's very important to say to the member for Ryan and to others who share her concerns that this project, like any large project in Australia, will be measured against the safeguard mechanism. The safeguard laws, the strong climate protection laws that the Greens and most of the crossbench voted for, are how we keep emissions down in Australia and how we actually get to net zero in this country. We can't get to net zero overnight, but we are making extremely strong progress. I spoke in this place yesterday about the number of renewable energy projects that we have already approved—54 renewable energy projects, one every two weeks. On top of these—

The previous environment minister is interjecting about koala habitat. That's pretty rich coming from a government that hid the State of the environment report because it said that the environment in Australia was bad and getting worse under the leadership of those opposite. Nobody has done less to help the Australian environment than the Deputy Leader of the Opposition.

On this proposal and others like it, we will assess every project, project by project, for its environmental impacts. Of course, they will also be assessed against the safeguard mechanism, voted for by those on the crossbench. It was said by the Greens political party's climate and environment spokesperson—I think her quote on this was, 'Under these laws, pollution will now go down, not up.'