Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to add my remarks on the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Bilateral Agreement Implementation) Bill 2014 to those of my Western Australian colleague, Senator Rachel Siewert. The Australian Greens have a proud record—one that stretches now across two decades—of standing up for protection of the environment whether it be on big picture issues, like marine conservation, climate change, nuclear and protection of country from uranium mining, or much more backyard, localised issues with groups stepping up to protect a beloved area of urban bushland. In adding to the remarks of Senator Siewert I want to start with the big picture and then bring it home to parts of my home town that are very precious to me and to many others.

Why would you even have national environmental law? I want to acknowledge the extraordinary work that my colleague Senator Waters undertook as an environmental lawyer and campaigner with the EDO and the expertise she has brought into this place. There would not be too many people in this building who know more about the history and purpose of national environmental law than Senator Waters.

I want to look at the 30-year arc when we finally had an agreement unfolding out of the historic events on the Franklin River. I am going back many years now, but there were some issues for which the Commonwealth of Australia needed to take responsibility. The head of power that this law was brought into being on was around our international obligations to uphold treaties on issues like climate change, to protect World Heritage areas and to protect Ramsar sites for migratory birds. That I think was a profound step change in thinking in this country—that there are some issues that the national parliament, even though it might be 3,000 or 4,000 kilometres from whatever is being considered, should take a strong role on. That is why, for example, if you have a multinational corporation proposing to blast uranium out of Kakadu National Park and sell it to the Russian government—