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

It's great to be able to make a contribution to the debate on this topic. Australia is fortunate to be a place of remarkable biodiversity, and we are all fortunate to have the stewardship of one of the seven continents on Earth, which includes the terrestrial environmental condition and all those ecosystems and the biodiversity that flows from that but also a remarkable marine estate. There's no way that you can take proper responsibility and stewardship for that environmental condition of biodiversity that depends upon it if you're not part of environmental collaborative and cooperative action, because clearly the kinds of factors that influence the environment and the health of our environment don't stop at national borders.

We've always understood this. It's been a feature of the work of Labor governments for a long period of time. I think it was a couple of days ago that we marked a significant anniversary with respect to the work that the Hawke government had done around the Franklin dam. Of course, it was the Hawke government that really led the outcomes around the current Antarctic Treaty, considering that in Australia we don't just take responsibility for our own island and continent nation; we feel a special responsibility for Antarctica as well. This government is going to continue that work. We know that it's in our own interests. We know that it's in keeping with our national character, because we've always been a nation that wants to put our shoulder to the wheel of that larger action and have that larger impact.

In Australia, the fact that our environment has suffered considerable harm over a period of time is well-established. Each and every environment report tells us that story. If we didn't have the environment report, we could look at the Graeme Samuel report that was commissioned by and provided to the former government. It said that Australia's environment is in poor state and is on a trajectory of decline. We can't allow that to continue to be the case. It would be utterly irresponsible. In order to reverse that trend and embark on a nature-positive pathway, we need to address the kinds of things that impact our environment. It is about deforestation and habitat loss and invasive species, but it's also about climate change. Climate change has added to and impacted upon those existing vectors of harm.

That's why almost the first thing that the government did was re-engage internationally on the question of cooperative action on climate change. We significantly improved Australia's emissions reduction commitment to 43 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030. That was a more than 50 per cent increase in terms of its ambition compared to the target that the coalition had set. We legislated that. We recommitted to our participation in the Green Climate Fund, which is the way that developed prosperous countries like Australia ensure that there is support for less developed countries to take action as part of this cooperative effort. We know that it's only through that kind of work together with other nations that we can keep global warming below the kind of level that would have a catastrophic impact on human health and on our environment as well.

When it comes to biodiversity more broadly, we support the '30 by 30' commitment. It was last year that Australia joined with 196 countries in agreeing to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It's a landmark agreement to stop new extinctions. We have to start by recognising, sadly, that Australia has been a world leader when it comes to mammal extinctions. It's not a title we want to hold, but, if we're not prepared to take concerted action, unfortunately a significant number of threatened and endangered species are likely to go closer to the brink of extinction. We can't allow that to happen, so we joined that agreement. More importantly, we've started taking concrete actions to put that agreement into effect. We've added 40 million hectares of land and sea to the national estate as protected terrestrial and marine terrain. That's a significant difference—40 million hectares of additional protected area as part of that commitment to see 30 per cent of Australia's land territory and 30 per cent of our ocean territory protected by 2030.

Of course, when it comes to marine territory, we've made significant progress in that direction, because, under the previous Labor government, we introduced the first national marine protected area network. Unfortunately, when the coalition government came to power, they cut the sanctuary areas under that plan by a significant amount. I think 50 per cent was cut for the highest protected areas, as they reduced funding to the environment department by 40 per cent and defunded a number of environmental protection measures.

Well, we're starting to turn that around. We're doubling the number of Indigenous rangers. We've provided $500 million for environmental work when it comes to saving native species, combating invasive species and seeing ecological condition restored. There's $200 million for the Urban Rivers and Catchments Program. Of course, just in the last couple of weeks of parliament, we've been debating the next stage of the big-picture nature-positive reforms, which will deliver a new independent environmental protection agency. That is a massive reform which has been long argued for and long sought after. We are delivering that as we do the two things that are necessary—the bigger picture, longer lasting systemic reform and the immediate, right here and now, changes that improve environmental condition and prevent Australia's biodiversity from being pushed closer to the brink.

In terms of ocean, which is a particular interest of mine and an area that I had some responsibility for in my former role as the Shadow Assistant Minister for the Environment, we have joined the High Ambition Coalition to end plastic pollution. We know that plastic in our oceans is a massive problem. If current trends continue, it's likely that there will be a greater weight of plastic in the ocean than fish by the time we get to 2050. That is a scary proposition. We know that microplastic that is in the ocean and is consumed by marine species ends up in human beings. There are some estimates that suggest that we are effectively consuming a credit card's worth of plastic ourselves every few weeks. Much of that material was never designed to be consumed. Needless to say, it's material that contains colourants, fire retardants and other kinds of chemicals that are carcinogenic in their nature. They're not things that human beings should be consuming.

But, when we don't take care of plastic waste and we allow it to go fugitively into the environment, inevitably that comes back to bite us. That's why we have been active in working with the High Ambition Coalition to end plastic pollution and, equally, making sure that we're undertaking change domestically to improve recycling and to avoid unnecessary plastic use in the first place, with the abolition of lots of different kinds of single-use plastics, which is something that the national government needs to lead but which, of course, the state and territory governments implement.

I can also say that I look forward to the forthcoming conference of the International Whaling Commission. I was very fortunate to go to the last one, which was early in this term in 2022. It was in Slovenia, and I represented the Minister for the Environment and Water at that conference. At that meeting of the IWC, which does vital work in protecting whales and advancing the cause of whale conservation, Nick Gales, a brilliant Australian scientist and conservationist, was elected deputy chair. He has done some great work, and obviously it would be great if he could continue to do that—perhaps in an even more senior role than deputy chair. That is another aspect of Australia's engagement on the international stage in the interests of achieving better environmental outcomes.

We know that, if you want to protect the environment, our remarkable biodiversity and the condition of the global environment—particularly around things like climate change—you have to act locally but you have to work cooperatively and collaboratively on the international stage. The Minister for the Environment and Water, the member for Sydney, has said there is no time to waste, and she has certainly wasted no time in resuming Australia's role as an international leader.

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on Australia's international leadership when it comes to the environment, and I would like to thank my Labor colleagues for their contributions to this conversation.

Prior to the last federal election, we promised that we would provide a fresh approach when it came to matters of leadership and the environment. We committed to doing things differently, and I am proud to stand here today and inform the House that this is exactly what we have done. These commitments involved renewing Australia's relationships abroad, particularly in the Pacific, listening to our neighbours and working in the region for peace and prosperity. At the same time, we promised to put the environment front and centre—back where it belongs. And that's what we have done.

We on this side of the House knew that without a serious environmental agenda it would be impossible to establish trust in the Pacific and that without global cooperation all our good intentions on the environment would fall short. We took this vision of an environmental agenda and a renewed relationship with our neighbours to the Australian people at the last election, and we have spent the last two years delivering on this.

It was pleasing to see that our environmental leadership was not lost on Australians or our international friends abroad. In fact, one of the first actions of the Minister for the Environment and Water was to attend the 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference. The minister and this Labor government wanted to send a clear message to the world that Australia was once again accepting our responsibility as a global leader on the environment. We know that one person who welcomed this message was the French President, Emmanuel Macron, when he told the Australian contingent:

You're back … we need you in the Indo-Pacific strategy, and climate and oceans is part of the strategy …

We know too that protecting nature is a human rights issue. It is an economic opportunity, and it is also clearly a foreign policy and security issue. Our international environmental leadership was demonstrated from the start of our term, when, immediately upon taking office, our government submitted stronger climate targets to the United Nations. We went on to legislate net zero by 2050, and we passed our safeguard reforms through the parliament. We doubled the rate of renewable projects being approved, and we began the process of getting cheaper, cleaner renewables into our energy grid. This is how we become a renewable energy superpower at home.

We know that this environmental leadership is already important and becoming increasingly essential to our relationships overseas. For example, climate change and clean energy are now officially the third pillar of our US alliance, and we have signed an official agreement with the United States Environmental Protection Agency, working to protect the environment and share critical information and data.

The minister for the environment also led Australia's delegation to Montreal for the UN Biodiversity Conference. It was here where we campaigned for a new global agreement to protect nature in every country. This campaigning contributed to 196 countries agreeing to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. This is a landmark agreement to stop new extinctions, to halt the spread of invasive species, to restore degraded environments and to protect 30 per cent of the planet's land and sea by 2030. As the Australian Conservation Foundation said afterwards, for the first time in a long time, Australia played a leading role in improving the agreement. It was so pleasing to see Australians, led by the minister for the environment, leading from the front in Montreal and the delegation as a force for ambition.

We're implementing the ambition demonstrated in Montreal here at home. It's very important in terms of our standing as global leaders in this space. We're delivering on our '30 by 30' commitment, protecting 30 per cent of our land and sea by the end of this decade. I am really proud that, since coming to office, we have added an extra 40 million hectares of land and sea to areas under protection. We're also delivering on our pledge to stop new extinctions in Australia with our stronger national environmental laws.

Of course, we're also setting up a new environmental protection agency, Environment Protection Australia, to enforce those stronger laws on the ground, and with our Nature Repair Market we are bringing new funding to the work of protection and restoration. We're investing more than $500 million to save native species and deal with weeds and feral predators. By adopting targets domestically and updating our national biodiversity strategy, we breathe life into our international agreements and we encourage other countries to follow our lead.

We know that our oceans, by their very nature, are global, which is why we must also deal with the third element of our triple planetary crisis by fighting for an ambitious global treaty on plastic pollution. Our neighbours in the Pacific see the terrible impact plastics are having on this region. In the ocean to Australia's north, we are pulling up ghost nets that have drifted into our water. These nets are six miles long and killing turtles, dolphins, sharks and fish. The Minister for the Environment and Water has been exceptionally clear in saying that she wants to see a plastic-pollution-free Pacific in our lifetime—as do I, and I know my constituents in Chisholm want to see that too.

In November last year, Australia joined the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, a coalition to end plastic pollution by 2040. We're seeking a treaty with binding international laws which push countries to clean up the pollution that is literally choking our environment. We also want to see producers take responsibility for the plastics that they are generating and to minimise demand for plastics in the first place.

I'm passionate about strong action to address climate change and I am so pleased to see the leadership from the minister for the environment in taking a stand on the issues that I know matter to so many in our communities. Better action on climate and the environment is one of the reasons I chose to run for parliament. I saw the years of inaction on climate change by those opposite and felt compelled to run and be part of a positive change for our environment. I wanted to be a part of an environment that delivered real action for climate change and on environmental leadership. I wanted to push for this change on behalf of my community.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Proceedings suspended from 16:47 to 17:00

As I was saying earlier, I wanted to be part of a government that delivered real action on climate change and environmental leadership. I wanted to push for this change within government on behalf of my community because I know my community in Chisholm shares my deep concerns about climate change.

We have many local environmental groups who do important work advocating and caring for our beautiful local nature reserves. I've said before in this place that I regularly meet with these groups to discuss both local environmental concerns and their larger concerns about climate change and Australian leadership on matters of the environment and nature. I want to acknowledge these local groups that are making a positive difference for our environment: the Australian Conservation Foundation Community Chisholm, Friends of Damper Creek Conservation Reserve, the KooyongKoot Alliance, Friends of Scotchmans Creek and Valley Reserve, and Baby Boomers for Climate Change Action.

We're all on a journey here, a journey supporting the Pacific and showing our leadership to the rest of the world while doing the necessary work we need to do at home. Dealing with our triple planetary crisis on climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss is an enormous challenge, but it is a challenge we must take on. We must continue to work every day to protect more of what is precious and restore what is damaged, and I'm really proud to be a part of a government that takes our international environmental leadership seriously.

Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pleased to speak today on the ministerial statement on Australia's international environmental leadership—something that I've been very proud of since coming to government in 2022. Here in Australia, we are extremely aware of the impact that the climate crisis is having on our environment. From the horrific Black Summer bushfires we saw in the summer of 2019 to 2020, to the increase in flash flooding across our country, to devastating drought, Australians are increasingly aware of the human and natural impacts of climate change.

Now, more than ever, we must take strong action on climate change and ensure that we are leaving the world a better place for our children and the future. But this also means Australians must be leading the way in environmental protection and climate positive policy.

In November 2023, Minister Plibersek delivered a statement on Australia's international environment leadership, affirming our government's commitment to this. In that statement, the minister outlined how important it was for Australia to take on the responsibility of protecting and restoring Australia's environment, to ensure we are helping to achieve a stable Indo-Pacific region, a sustainable planet and a safer world based on our environmental action. This is what we promised during the 2022 election, and it's what our government is committed to delivering.

After a decade of climate denial and inaction, the Albanese Labor government is shouldering our responsibility as international environment leaders, and we're taking this responsibility extremely seriously. We are not playing games with the environment for the sake of contrarianism and politics, like some opposite have done.

We have made tangible steps to protect our environment. When we came to government, we immediately submitted stronger climate targets to the United Nations. We quickly legislated net zero emissions by 2050. We reformed the safeguard mechanism. We doubled the rate of renewable energy projects being approved. We implemented a marine protection framework. In just two years, we have greenlit a record 54 renewable energy projects—enough to power over three million Australian homes.

We are catching Australia up to the rest of the world, after we saw the previous government have a decade of denial and delay. We have also made our international partnerships with the United States and, more broadly, with our allies in the Asia-Pacific based on climate action. Our government has also signed on to several international agreements, committing Australia to taking strong action on climate change and protecting our environment. These include the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, signed in 2022 with 196 other countries, which is a global agreement to stop new extinctions, halt the spread of invasive species, restore degraded environments and protect 30 per cent of the planet's land and sea by 2030. This ambitious agreement is something that the Australian delegation led the charge on—something unheard of in this country before 2022—and we are delivering on this agreement.

We know we have more work to do. The Albanese Labor government is continuing to make progress, to ensure that we are at the forefront of environmental policies and climate action. We are still working to be the leaders on that front.

Just this week, we are debating the Nature Positive (Environment Protection Australia) Bill, the Nature Positive (Environment Information Australia) Bill and the Nature Positive (Environment Law Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill. These bills are setting up Australia's first national environmental protection agency, which will have strong powers and penalties to enforce federal environmental laws and ensure that the EPA is ready to administer our new environmental laws that are currently under consultation. These bills are also legislating Environment Information Australia, which is an independent agency that has a mandate to provide environmental data and information to the EPA, the minister and the public. Ultimately, they are the next step in the minister's Nature Positive Plan and they complement the ongoing work of the minister to reform the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act according to the Samuel review.

We are also investing in a future made in Australia, to capitalise on Australia's capacity to become a renewable-energy powerhouse. This is beneficial for our nation but also for our international partners. We have lots of sun and wind here. We have a natural advantage in this area, and we plan to make the most of it.

Another key way is showing environmental leadership is through addressing pollution, particularly of the ocean. The ocean, of course, does not belong just to one nation. Australia has always been famous for our beautiful beaches. While we may only have Acton Beach here in Canberra, Australia's coastline is iconic and Canberrans certainly love our South Coast. But imagine if that coastline were covered in plastic and other rubbish. This is something that our Pacific allies know far too well. We know that plastic pollution is having devastating effects on our marine life and ecosystems. A plastic-free Pacific is something that we can achieve in our lifetimes. In 2022, Australia joined the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution. It aims to end plastic pollution by 2040. Also in our region we are funding the Pacific Ocean Litter Project, with $16 million to reduce single-use plastics. We are also building new recycling facilities and regulating packaging standards, which is lowering the amount going into landfill. As the minister put it:

Protecting nature is a human rights issue. It's an economic opportunity. It's also a foreign policy issue. It's a security issue.

There is no doubt that we are in a climate crisis and action must be taken. I am proud to be part of a government that is taking that strong action that we need on climate change. I am also proud to represent a community that is deeply engaged on environmental and climate issues.

When I and other members of the class of 2019 were first elected, one of the very first experiences that many of us had was of the bushfires and the response to those. While we didn't have the fires here in Canberra, they were obviously in the region and in many places that Canberrans love and have connections to, particularly on the South Coast of New South Wales. But also, here in Canberra, where we normally have very good air-quality, for much of that January of 2020 we had some of the worst air quality in the world, to the point that our city was locked down many times, lots of public buildings were closed and people were advised to stay in their homes and to have air conditioning on. Anyone who had an existing health condition, pregnant women or anyone with particular vulnerabilities was advised that they should be relocating, which, of course, wasn't an option for so many people. Similarly, staying at home with the air conditioning on wasn't an option for so many people, particularly people living on social security, people who couldn't afford air conditioning and didn't have it. As a relatively new local member, I was confronted with people asking for my help with those issues, and I think it really brought home to me and to all of us how unprepared we were for those very real impacts of climate change that we were already seeing. This is not something off into the future but something we are already seeing around us.

It is so critically important that the action we are delivering is the most ambitious that it can be and that we are doing the most that we can do to confront this global challenge. I am incredibly proud that our government is doing just that: that we have set ambitious targets—not just ambitious targets for the sake of that but ones that we know we can get to, that we have a plan to actually deliver. It is also disingenuous to say that we can turn this around tomorrow; we can't. This will be the biggest transformation that our economy has ever seen, and it is one for which we are up for the challenge. We want Australia to make the most of the opportunities. That's what our Future Made in Australia plan is about as well. It is about capitalising on the fact that we have natural advantages for renewable energy and we should be building those things here as well.

On coming into government, I remember it was said that under Labor the environment is back. That has been so incredibly important. The bills I mentioned earlier that we are debating this week include enshrining in legislation the principle of being nature positive, which is not just a slogan; it is about leaving the environment in a better state than we found it and about fixing some of the terrible problems with Australia's environment right now. It is something our government is deeply committed to, as is my community.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is an important statement for talking about Australia's international obligations in the environment space. I note that, in the nine years we were in government, we had rooftop solar on one in four houses. That was world's best. That was world's best practice. A lot is often said condemning what the coalition did or didn't do during our three terms in office, but rest assured that there was money for such vital environmental projects that Landcare did right throughout the country. We made huge investments in ensuring that our waterways were as they should be. There were huge investments and consideration for the soil.

With the member for Paterson, I am very pleased to be the co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of Soil, because what we can do as a nation in being good environmental stewards dealing with climate action is right beneath our feet. What we should be doing more of is making sure that there's carbon sequestration. We should be making sure that the soil we have is healthy and protected, because, if we don't, that is going to lead to more soil degradation and more soil salinity. You would know that yourself, Deputy Speaker Scrymgour, coming from Lingiari, that massive electorate in the Northern Territory. I know that, right throughout the nation, our soil needs to be preserved and protected.

I note too that, in her 15 November 2023 statement on international environmental leadership, the Minister for the Environment and Water talked about Labor promising a fresh approach to leadership and the environment and mentioned, in only the third sentence in that particular statement, that Labor was renewing Australia's relationships abroad, particularly in the Pacific, establishing trust in the Pacific. There was always trust in the Pacific. It annoys me that this rubbish is perpetuated by those opposite—saying that we never looked after or we ignored the Pacific. The Pacific is our neighbourhood. It's our environment. We have been very good friends with our Pacific friends, no less so than through the former foreign affairs minister Senator Marise Payne, who did a power of good, a power of work, in the Pacific to ensure that those links, which stretch back many, many decades, were continued, built upon and enhanced.

Speaking of the Pacific, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch—you can also call it the Pacific Trash Vortex or the North Pacific Garbage Patch, whatever you like—is an alarming concern. It is indeed growing. The Ocean Cleanup projects researchers claim that the patch covers 1.6 million square kilometres. That is massive—three times the size of France, I think. It includes many items of plastic. To address climate, we have this folly in this nation that we're going to close down every coalmine, every coal-fired power station, tomorrow. I see the member for Hunter opposite. That would destroy the communities in his electorate. We have this rush towards renewables, this linear approach towards getting to net zero by 2050, which is dictating that Labor needs to out-green the Greens political party at times. There is great folly in this, because, if those opposite truly believe that we are going to have worse weather, more severe droughts, more severe flooding, more severe weather events having an impact on our environment, on our communities, on insurance premiums, then why the rush to renewables, where Labor is going to rely on the weather—on wind and all of those things, hydroelectricity et cetera—to power our nation?

If, as the member for Boothby said, Labor wants a Future Made in Australia, with manufacturing made in Australia, producing goods made right here and not necessarily relying on those that come from abroad, then we're going to have to have good, reliable, available, affordable power supplies. That energy can't just come from solar and wind, because, as has been often stated—and it is decried by those opposite—when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine, the battery storage capacity, the technology, at the moment just isn't at that point. It may well be in the future, but it is not right here right now. That is why we need to have a mix. That is why we need to have a balance. And that is why I believe, and so do the coalition members, that we need to have a national, rational discussion about the possibility of having nuclear in that mix, because to get to net zero by 2050 we need to be able to have—like so many other nations in the world, so many other progressive economic leaders in the world—nuclear as part of the energy mix and not rely solely or too heavily on wind, solar and renewables.

The difficulty that we face as local communities—and all politics is local—is that, particularly up in northern New South Wales and other parts of the nation that I have visited, we are running out of room for our rubbish tips. We are running out of room. We are such a consumer-driven society. You buy a shirt these days and you unpack it, and you've got any number of pins and cardboard and plastic. The plastic surrounding it weighs even more than the actual product itself. You buy a three-pack of soap these days, and each cake of soap is contained in its own box within a box. This is all leading to more and more landfill. What are we doing to address that? I have to pay credit to the former environment minister, the member for Farrer, Sussan Ley. She did a lot of work in this space to ensure that we were addressing these sorts of issues. But we do need to have not a war on plastic but careful consideration of what we do in this space so that we are not just making more and more landfill.

I can well remember going to Nairobi, in Kenya, not that long ago. They had a rubbish dump there which was started in the late eighties or early nineties and which had filled up by the early 2000s and was closed, but they continued to deliver rubbish there. Sadly, thousands upon thousands of women, particularly young girls and women, went there each day and picked through the rubbish that was collected there. You can see this rubbish dump from outer space; that is how large it is. We don't want a repeat of that anywhere in the world. I know that Kenya as a nation is doing its utmost and level best to address its plastic problem—you're not allowed to take plastic bags into the country and, if you get caught at customs or the borders bringing in a plastic bag, even to put your clothes in within your luggage or whatever the case might be, you cop a fine. That's probably a good thing given the problem they have at the Nairobi rubbish dump.

But to my point about local councils: they are running out of room for their landfills. We as a parliament and, indeed, also state governments need to address this problem because we need to have better recycling. We need to encourage more recycling. We throw out so many materials—bottles and plastics—that could easily be recycled. Whether there's the room and the political will to incentivise that process remains to be seen. But this is an important statement. I appreciate that the government will always say it's doing better than what we ever did. That is truly not the case, but we don't need the Greens in a power-sharing arrangement in any future government to lead us all down an environmental path which would be very bad for business and very bad for household budgets.

Debate adjourned.