David Littleproud (Maranoa, National Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Environment and Water. I refer the minister to her previous answer. Will the minister rule out the future introduction of the federal environmental protection bill?

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

I thank the Leader of the Nationals for his question. It's pretty clear what our plan was. The legislation passed through the House of Representatives with the support of many of those on the crossbench and Labor. We introduced it into the Senate. We couldn't get it through the Senate. That's a shame. Many of us are very disappointed about that, but it hasn't gone through the Senate. It won't go through the Senate in this parliament. We have withdrawn it from the Notice Paper.

I think many Australians watching this debate would be very disappointed that this parliament couldn't do what everybody in this parliament acknowledges is necessary, which is sensible environmental law reform based on the report of Professor Graeme Samuel to the previous government. Professor Graeme Samuel was selected by the previous government to report on our environmental laws, and what did he find? He found that those laws are not working for business and they're not working for nature.