Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move Australian Greens amendment (2) on sheet 5143:

(2)    Schedule 1, page 16 (after line 14), after item 67, insert:

67B After section 24A

Insert:

Subdivision FB—Protection of the environment from land clearance

24c Requirement for approval for land clearing

                   (i)    the action is not a controlled action; or

                  (ii)    the action is a controlled action but this section is not a controlling provision for the action.

24E What is a broadscale clearing action?

Subdivision FC—Protection of the environment—water use

24F Requirement for approval for water use

                   (i)    the action is not a controlled action; or

                  (ii)    the action is a controlled action but this section is not a controlling provision for the action.

Subdivision FD—Protection of the environment from large dams

24G Requirement for approval for construction and operation of large dams

                   (i)    the action is not a controlled action; or

                  (ii)    the action is a controlled action but this section is not a controlling provision for the action.

24H What is a large dam?

This amendment relates to triggers for items of national environmental significance—land clearing, large dams and water resources. I will speak about all three triggers. The State of the environment report released yesterday highlighted the rate of clearing in Australia. It found that, between 2000 and 2004, 1.5 million hectares of forest were cleared across the continent and that it is often the case that the replacement vegetation, whether natural regeneration or planted trees, is not like the communities that were previously cleared. Undoubtedly, clearing of native vegetation is the largest cause of biodiversity loss. Australia still has an unenviable record globally of biodiversity loss.

I remind the Senate that 90 species in Australia are listed as threatened, and of concern at a regional level are 39 freshwater fish species, 92 frog species, 253 reptile species, 289 bird species and 209 mammal species. Unfortunately, it is not an enviable record. Globally, we are in the sixth mass extinction of biodiversity in the history of the earth, and it is the first to be driven by human activity. The main causes of diversity loss are habitat destruction and degradation, invasive plant and animal species, and unsustainable levels of harvesting. Habitat destruction and degradation are undoubtedly caused by land clearing.

We believe this needs to be an issue of national significance and that is why we are moving an amendment to insert in this bill a trigger to deal with this. We are also moving an amendment to insert a trigger on water. This issue is in the media every day. Australia is at the moment in a water crisis. This is as a result of drought, climate variation and, I believe, climate change. We believe we need to be regulating the impact of water extraction, because it is an issue of such national importance. We need to be addressing the significant issue of over-allocation around Australia. There are significant difficulties in regulating water across state boundaries. We have different controls in each state.

There is a very strong push to start looking at the development of the north. We are deeply concerned about what this means for our biodiversity and particularly for our water resources. Therefore, we believe there is a definite need to have very strict environmental controls in place before any further unsustainable development in the north occurs. That is another reason that we believe we should have a national trigger on the issue of water.

Just last night I was talking in this place about the dire threat to our wetlands in Australia, particularly our 64 Ramsar wetlands. I am aware that Ramsar is already an issue of national environmental significance, but there are issues around Ramsar, such as the regulation of water, that I believe should become issues of national environmental significance. Another issue that was highlighted in the State of the environment report was our unsustainable use of groundwater and the lack of appropriate regulation of groundwater. Unsustainable water use affects all jurisdictions across Australia. It is a key threat to many of our wetlands, which, as I was saying, are of national and international importance. We have the Gwydir wetlands, which I spoke about extensively last night, Macquarie Marshes and the Coorong. Just two weeks ago the Department of Environment and Heritage in South Australia put out a report highlighting the dire impacts on the Coorong wetland, another wetland of international importance. The Auditor-General in Western Australia has issued a fairly damning report about the management of wetlands there.

We have another amendment to do with the operation and construction of dams. Yet again dams are in the media. Australia has 447 large dams, with a combined capacity of 79,000 gigalitres. That is equivalent to 158 times the volume of Sydney Harbour. These hydrological modifications occur throughout Australia to varying degrees and we are deeply concerned they will have a potentially devastating impact on the Australian environment. We are already seeing the impact on the Australian environment of overallocation of our water resources. Surface water use across Australia is reported to increase annually by 69 per cent or 20,300 gigalitres.

We believe that making large dams an automatic trigger for this act will allow the minister to create much clearer guidelines on how dams are assessed. We believe that it will better enable the minister to assess the environmental impacts of dams. It will reduce uncertainty for proponents if they know that this particular project will be one that comes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Therefore, we believe it will ensure better environmental protection for our major rivers and their associated ecosystems.

Hopefully by having a water and a large dam trigger in the legislation we will also be able to better manage our riparian vegetation, which, yet again, according to the State of the environment report, is in a very degraded state and much in need of repair. At the moment it is not being fixed, although the excellent environmental management programs that many community organisations carry out are doing an extremely good job. Unfortunately, as is highlighted by the State of the environment report, the success of many of these projects is undermined and easily compromised by unsustainable large-scale land and water use patterns. It is those water use patterns that we in Australia need to get much better regulation and control of. That is why we believe it is very important that the federal government, particularly now, with such a strong focus on water, is provided with a national environment trigger so that it can act much more strongly and clearly to manage water and so that there is no uncertainty about its role and it can show much stronger leadership in the water debate. I will admit that it has made some moves to address the water issue. I personally, along with the Greens, do not think those moves have been vigorous enough or that they address the issues to the extent that is due. By making these issues major triggers we will be able to achieve that.

The biodiversity loss in Australia, both through land clearing and unsustainable land and water use practices, is a major problem—one that needs to be much more seriously addressed. By putting these triggers into the act, the federal government will be able to take much stronger action on these issues. I therefore commend this amendment to the chamber.