Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Tony Abbott. The government will be complicit in allowing either themselves or Mr Tony Abbott's government, should he form government after the election, to hand off those powers to state governments and to abandon our national environment to the whim of state governments, who will not act in the national interest. That is not their job; of course they will not. They are traditionally seen, and evidence bears it out, to be much closer to developers and to the big miners, although I am afraid that contention could also be put to the two big parties here.

I urge all senators to think long and hard about their position on this bill. I would be so disappointed, as would, I think, the Australian public—and anyone who has visited the reef and knows how beautiful it is and how important and fragile it is and anyone who has visited the beautiful forests of Tasmania and seen the wonderful koalas which are now nationally threatened and experienced the beauty and the joy of our national environment—if it is politics that stops this bill going through. When we have this one chance to make sure that our national environment remains able to be protected by our national government—as folk in the public expect that it should and would be—is politics really going to get in the way of a good outcome?

Perhaps I am naive to think that it is even possible that anything other than that might happen. We Greens stand here saying: 'You have a chance to stand to protect our national environment. Please take this chance. Remove those powers that would allow the federal minister to simply get out of the way and give the green light to state governments to trash the environment as much as they can.' What an absolutely dismaying and depressing outcome that could be.

I want to quickly touch on some of the reassurances that the Labor government have put. They said, 'Oh, it is fine if the states are in charge. It does not really matter who makes the decision, because we will have standards in place and they will have to adhere to the standards.' Coming at this issue as an environmental lawyer who practised in this area for 10 years, I have seen the standards that exist already for that assessment phase and I have seen how they have been breached on several occasions, not least by our Queensland Premier—to the extent that the federal minister had to step back in and take that assessment off Campbell Newman for the Alpha coal mine, Gina Rinehart's big mine, which, sadly, the federal minister then approved anyway.

So we have seen that the states will not comply with standards. There is nothing in the standards that obliges compliance. I asked this question both in estimates and in the Senate inquiry: what is the guarantee that these standards will be complied with; where is the reassurance? I was simply referred to that part of the law that says, 'The federal minister can revoke the whole arrangement if one person has breached one part of it.' Well, do you think that is likely to happen? That is certainly not what has happened so far in those assessment agreements. It is an incredibly unlikely outcome. What is far more likely is that you will see the state governments undermining those standards, letting development through that will trash World Heritage areas—sending threatened species to extinction and riding roughshod over wetland areas and other important international icons—and the Commonwealth will not be about to lift a finger to stop it.

This is such an important bill and I again urge senators in this place to search their consciences and think about the legacy that is at risk here if these sections remain in the law and allow a future Abbott government—or indeed even this government if the Business Council breathes down their neck again as it is wanting to do—to use these powers to hand it off.

I want to mention and thank all of the people so far who have supported the Greens campaign to protect our national environmental laws—the laws that protect the places that we all love. I want to thank the environment groups and I want to thank everyone who went to the trouble of making a submission in support of this bill. The vast majority of the submissions to our inquiry did support this bill. People know what the risks are if we do not pass this bill. They fear Campbell Newman being in charge of the reef with no check and balance at the federal level—and rightly so. So I want to thank those folk for putting their views on the record.

I want to urge senators to really listen to the evidence. We had some very compelling evidence presented in the Senate inquiry, including, I might add, from the environment department themselves, who confirmed that the Minerals Council of Australia and the Business Council of Australia actually had not provided evidence about duplication and delay, that they had given some anecdotes but there was no solid evidence that had been provided. That was a really shocking admission because it showed that the government was prepared to adopt a policy without any evidentiary basis, without any demonstrated need for a change. Frankly, it showed just how in the pocket of big business this government is. And, of course, we know that any future government from the other side of politics would be equally, if not more, in that same pocket.

We have the evidence that was presented so cogently to the Senate inquiry from all of the environment groups, from economists and from lawyers, all saying: 'It is really risky to hand off these powers to state governments. They could do serious damage. There are not enough guarantees that any standards will be complied with. There is a possible loss of public rights. This whole idea is insane. Please do not go ahead. No-one ever thought these provisions would be used. For heaven's sake, get rid of them so that we can always have the national government with that oversight role to protect our international icons.'

Again we have seen the Business Council and the Minerals Council making unfounded claims, seeking to get exactly what they want. It remains to be seen whether the government will still pursue this policy outcome. If they fail to vote for this bill, they are leaving open the option of either themselves or a Tony Abbott government using these powers. I believe that will simply lead the Australian public to the conclusion that only the Greens are prepared to stand up to protect our national environment, to protect our World Heritage areas like the Great Barrier Reef and the wonderful Tasmanian forests, to protect our nationally threatened species like the beautiful Leadbeater's possum in Victoria, and the koala—which is, sadly, now nationally threated. The public will know that only the Greens are serious about actually protecting our environment and that we are the only ones recognising that, in order to have a health economy and a healthy community, you need a healthy environment—and that requires proper federal oversight of damaging developments that stand to threaten these natural icons that could underpin a sustainable economy and give us all great joy for generations to come.

I look forward to the debate and I certainly look forward to hearing, hopefully, a change of position from the two big parties, although, sadly, I am not expecting to hear that. I look forward to the debate on this really important bill.