Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern and Remote Australia) Share this | Hansard source

In commencing my contribution to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Bill, I remind senators of the very proud record the Liberal and National parties have when it comes to the environment in Australia. If you look back, every single piece of practical environmental legislation that actually benefits Australia and benefits our biodiversity is an action of Liberal-National party governments. Can I mention a few of those before I get onto the EPBC Act, which is, again, a creation of the Liberal-National party coalition.

Liberal governments prohibited sand mining on Fraser Island. Liberal governments banned whaling in Australian waters. Liberal governments declared the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The same governments proclaimed the Kakadu, Uluru, Christmas Island and Coral Sea national and maritime parks. Five properties were placed on the World Heritage List under the Fraser government. They included the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu, Willandra Lakes, Lord Howe Island and South West Tasmania. Liberal-National party governments also passed the Antarctic Treaty (Environment Protection) Act and the Antarctic Marine Living Resources Conservation Act.

Our governments regulated the uranium industry in the Northern Territory and enacted major pieces of legislation to control pollution, especially for the protection of the high seas. Coalition governments legislated for the introduction of things which are now taken for granted such as unleaded petrol as a pollution-control measure. Right throughout the history of coalition governments, programs have been introduced for water protection, soil protection and tree promotion around our country. It was a Liberal government that had Australia's first ever environment minister.

We have a very proud record of practical and sensible work for Australia's environment and biodiversity. It is something that you will never, ever hear uttered from the lips of the Greens political party because they loath with a passion anyone from this side of the chamber—particularly in an environmental sense. If you look back through history, you will see that all of the sensible and practical actions taken in Australia for our environment have been the work of coalition governments. Indeed, it was my friend the then Senator Robert Hill, as Minister for the Environment, who introduced the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Nowhere did we hear the Greens or the Labor Party calling for this sort of legislation, but it is something that came through—like the green zones on the Great Barrier Reef. These are major, practical enhancements to Australia's environmental protection and management.

We are proud of what we have done, but we have done it in a sensible way and in a way that did not impinge on Australia's economy, increase our costs of living or decrease our attractiveness for investment—the sort of investment that has kept Australia to the forefront of the world. The difficulty with the legislation that has been introduced by coalition governments is that sometimes other governments get to be in charge of them. Once they are in charge, they can make very stupid decisions that really take us no further but make political points and attract preferences from the Greens political party, keeping the current Labor government—and many other Labor governments—in power.

I heard the previous speaker praising Mr Windsor, as well the Labor Party should because, if it were not for Mr Windsor, Australia would have had a decent government, a proactive government and a sound financially managing government three years ago. But Mr Windsor—through his, I might say, crassness—kept Ms Gillard and this dysfunctional Labor government in power long after they should have been thrown onto the scrap heap of political history—as they will no doubt be later this year.

The bill before us is another example of overkill by the Australian Labor Party at the urgings of Mr Windsor, for his own purposes, and the Greens political party. The coalition will not be opposing it, but we do make the point—yet again—that this legislation simply duplicates the powers that the states already have. The Labor government has spoken a lot about this one-stop shop process of environmental regulating, but again—as with everything the Labor government does—it is all just words. I, like 95 per cent of other Australians, have simply stopped listening to anything this government says.

Today, on what I call 'fantasy Tuesday', when we are preparing for what is very loosely called a budget, again we see that nobody really cares what is going to be said tonight. Nobody cares at all what is said because everybody knows from past performance that, no matter what the Treasurer says tonight, it will not happen. Remember in the last two or three budgets when he promised those surpluses? Do you remember that, Madam Acting Deputy President? His speech last budget night was so exact, so precise, so forceful about the need for a surplus. And not only on budget night, but 500 times since, have the Treasurer and the Prime Minister assured every Australian it was essential for the peace, order and good government of Australia, and for our children and grandchildren, that we must have a surplus. And yet a few weeks ago we eventually heard from the government's own lips what every sane commentator has been saying for 12 months: that there was not going to be a surplus. Of course, the only mystery about tonight's so-called budget is how big the deficit will be. Senator Carr is sitting here. He knows. He has robbed his foreign aid budget to try and reduce the deficit. How could any foreign minister do that! I have not heard the Greens comment too much about that just yet.