Fatima Payman (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The former minister, now the deputy opposition leader, received the Samuel review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act before Christmas, and what did she do? She sat on it for three months before releasing it. We know why. It's a catalogue of horrors, showing just how much damage a decade of Liberal Party and National Party neglect did to our environment. The report says that the Australian environment is in very bad shape and getting worse. How do you explain that? Let's look at the track record of those opposite in the last decade.

They axed climate laws and failed to legislate a target for net zero emissions by 2050. They failed to fix Australia's broken environmental laws, despite having a widely supported blueprint to do so. They sabotaged the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. They promised $40 million for Indigenous water but never delivered a single drop. They set recycling targets, but with no actual plan for how to deliver them. They cut highly protected areas of marine parks in half. They cut funding to the environment department by 40 per cent. It's astonishing—a decade of environmental neglect, and they showed no signs of turning around. It's truly and utterly disgraceful.

Thankfully, we now have a Labor government that won't hide from the truth or delay work that needs to be done to improve Australia's environment. We know just how important our natural environment is, and we will do what it takes to protect it. I'm also pleased that we're getting on with the job of achieving our goal of a nature-positive Australia, leaving nature and our environment better off for our kids and grandkids. This means that we are protecting more of what's precious, repairing more of what's damaged and managing nature better for the future—not only because we want to do so but because we have to. What a contrast that must be to the decade of nature neglect we saw from those opposite. And I'm so proud that the government has made a terrific start in turning this all around. It stands in stark contrast to the decade of absolute contempt for the environment from those opposite.

Now, shall we talk about some of the incredible work the Albanese government is doing? It includes stronger laws to better protect nature and give faster, clearer development decisions. It's a win-win for nature and for business, and it's been welcomed by nature groups and business groups alike. We're setting up an environmental protection agency to ensure there is a tough cop on the beat to enforce stronger laws, and we're working towards zero new extinctions, backed up by a $225 million investment to protect koalas and other threatened species. We're also tripling the size of Macquarie Island Marine Park, which is home to penguins, seals and whales.

We're also repairing more of what's damaged by establishing a nature repair market to reward farmers and other landholders for restoring nature. We're repairing our urban rivers and waterways, and we're investing in blue carbon projects to restore mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses along our coast, including in Queensland, Tasmania and South Australia. We're eradicating cats on Christmas Island and funding actions against gamba grass in the Northern Territory. And, finally, we're managing nature better for the future by cracking down on plastic pollution, by signing up to an ambitious global target, by giving plastic recycling a $60 million boost, by doubling the number of Indigenous rangers to help look after country and by doubling funding for national parks in the budget—after a decade of neglect—to make sure precious places like Kakadu are safe and accessible for future generations. We're also delivering the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, ending a decade of sabotage by the Liberals and Nationals. That's just a taste of the Albanese Labor government's plan for a nature-positive Australia. It's a very welcome relief, I must say, after the decade of nature neglect by the 'no-alition'.