Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to take the opportunity to contribute to this debate about the very important Environment Legislation Amendment Bill 2013. This bill, as has been pointed out, does a couple of things. It removes the need for the Minister for the Environment to consider separate conservation advice for approval decisions prior to 31 December 2013 and increases penalties for killing turtles and dugongs. I know there are some amendments to be moved to this bill by other parties. Labor will be supporting one of those amendments from the Greens and not some of the others. I look forward to the committee stage of the debate on this important bill.

It is interesting that we are here talking about an environment bill today in the Senate when we have heard overnight of tensions within the government ranks in the environment space as Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is preparing to attend the 21st meeting of the COP in Lima, Peru to discuss the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It seems the Prime Minister's office is not allowing Ms Bishop to conduct that responsibility on her own.