Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The statement tabled by the minister made for a very interesting read in relation to international environmental leadership. I don't think there are many people in this place or the other place who would think that, over the last 18 months, this government has shown leadership in the environment space. This portfolio, sadly, has seen, as a result of I'm not sure whether it is ineptitude or a lack of interest from the minister, a huge amount of underwhelming performance. The delays on everything related to the environment portfolio have meant that Australia and the Australian community, from environmental groups and ordinary mums and dads who actually care about our environment through to those who seek to do business in the environment, are wondering what is going on. There's a lack of certainty, a lack of urgency and a lack of direction which are causing incredible concern across all parts of our community, something that I hope the government takes notice of.

Over 18 months, we have seen many promises that were made by this government, be they on power prices or any other important issue, being broken, and in this portfolio it is no different. I do recall, over a year ago now, when the minister, on the release of the state of the environment report, outlined what the government would do in response to the state of the environment report. It also released its response to the Samuel review, which, of course, is on reforms to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, the EPBC Act. At the time we were told we did not have a minute to lose—that this was incredibly urgent. But 18 months on, sadly, we are no clearer on exactly what the government is going to be doing.

Only recently, on 30 and 31 October, a select group of Australian stakeholders, including businesses, ENGOs and other people who have been a part of the process to date, gathered here in Canberra to have a look at what the government has done about reforming these laws in responding to the review. We must remember that the EPBC Act is in excess of 1,000 pages of legislation. What was presented on 30 and 31 October—in these secret, closed-door meetings to which no-one outside of that select group was invited—were a few pages with some principles. This is 18 months on, and that is all we have. There is absolutely no clarity. It does expose for what it is the claim that we didn't have a minute to lose, and, also that this government was taking this portfolio seriously, because I don't think anyone could claim that and keep a straight face.

In the statement, one of the claims made by the minister, one that the minister wants us to believe, is that there is a nature repair market which is bringing new funding to the work of protecting and restoring our environment. The nature repair market legislation is nowhere to be seen. It went off to a Senate committee for inquiry, and it was difficult to find a solitary stakeholder, be they from the environment portfolio, ENGOs or the business sector—anywhere—that supported the legislation as it was drafted. The committee report has been pushed back and pushed back. Last time I checked, the committee wasn't going to be reporting back until the month of April next year. That is something that we're being told in this ministerial statement is there and is going to be contributing to the good work of this government in saving the environment. The bill as it was drafted and as it stands today is botched and, sadly, is another example of how little attention is being paid to such an important part of what this government should be focusing on.

When it comes to matters Antarctic—and only this morning in this building we had a group of Antarctic scientists converge on Canberra to brief us on matters related to sea ice—