Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today in favour of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Expanding the Water Trigger) Bill 2023. This bill will expand the water trigger in our environment laws to ensure all proposed unconventional gas projects are assessed for their impacts on critical water resources. Water is life. Our rivers and waterways are critical for the survival of our ecosystems, culture and communities. Yet a loophole in our environment laws means fracking corporations have a licence to drill without regard for our rivers or the voices of traditional owners. Currently, the Minister for the Environment and Water is only required to assess proposed coal seam gas projects for their water impact, while hydraulic fracturing projects remain exempt from this requirement, despite their significant water impact. This does not make sense. This bill seeks to fix this failure of our environment laws and provide stronger protection for Australia's rivers, aquifers, wetlands and the communities that rely upon them.

The Albanese government has already made its commitment to an expanded water trigger clear in its Nature Positive Plan. However, if stalled beyond this year, this promise will be too little, too late. This reform is urgent. Current projects that are soon to be given approval without considering the impact on water will go ahead unless we fix this loophole. The Albanese government did, of course, promise to do this by the end of this calendar year. Where is this reform? In the Northern Territory, fracking companies are on the precipice of large-scale gas extraction. Fracking projects in the Beetaloo Basin are expected to receive first gas production approvals imminently. This is why this reform is urgent. Unless the water trigger is extended, there is no requirement for federal assessment and approval when changing from an exploration to a production licence. This is clearly a loophole that needs to be fixed. Last week the NT government released their Georgina Wiso Water Allocation Plan, which proposes to give billions of litres of water to fracking and cotton companies. Scientists and water experts have sounded the alarm about what is a completely unsustainable and frankly dangerous allocation of water. The plan was prepared without an advisory committee, in breach of the National Water Initiative. The proposed extraction could stop the Roper River flowing and endanger the Northern Territory aquifers, billabongs and sacred sites.

The NT government is acting completely recklessly, sacrificing the environment and culture to pave way for fracking. The complete lack of concern for preserving the NT's critical water resources is alarming. We are in 2023. It's time we consider the impacts of these types of projects on precious resources like water. Fracking uses enormous volumes of water and puts groundwater and surface water at risk of contamination. Without impact assessment, water resources may be limitlessly exploited and irreversibly damaged for projects that do nothing but put our climate at further risk. For every gas well, fracking companies require millions of litres of groundwater, which the NT government is willing to give them now. An expanded water trigger in our federal environment laws will provide an urgently needed layer of protection for NT water and waterways by ensuring rigorous assessment of potential impacts to waterways. The federal government must show leadership and step in to stop this dangerous overextraction before irreversible damage is done to the climate and to our river systems and waterways.

Contamination of water as a result of fracking is also a critical concern for communities throughout the region. Even in the exploration phase, we have already seen fracking corporations acting like cowboys, with simply no regard for the water and how they handle it. Tamboran Resources barely received a slap on the wrist for spraying toxic wastewater all over their site. Communities and workers alike have expressed concerns about how this action could have poisoned waterways, ecosystems and ultimately the health of communities in the region. There needs to be a better system of accountability and responsibility. Fracking the Beetaloo will have not only an immediate impact on the NT environment but ongoing impacts that will be felt long into the future. This climate bomb could increase emissions by up to 117 million tonnes a year. That's 25 per cent of Australia's annual emissions.

As the climate crisis worsens, we need to be doing everything we can to protect our environment. This means not only protecting what water we still have but properly regulating polluting industries that make the climate crisis worse. They cannot be allowed to freely exploit a resource that is absolutely critical to human survival. Already the impacts of climate change are being felt within the NT and, of course, across the rest of the country, with visible impacts on water resources in this generation.

I want to thank the delegation of traditional owners who visited parliament earlier this year to tell us about the impacts of fracking on their country. I want to quote what they told me. They said:

We know this planned gas fracking will make climate change worse. We know if this fracking goes ahead we may not be able to live on country like we have for thousands and thousands of years. We need your help to keep our culture, our water, our climate and our children's futures safe.

Our water, our land and our climate is all linked. If we wait any longer to implement an expanded water trigger, fracking could result in irreversible overextraction of water, compounded by worsening climate impacts in the region.

Commitments have been made to expand the water trigger over and over again. It is time we get this done. The Albanese government committed to it both at the election and in their Nature Positive Plan. The NT government committed to it through the implementation of all recommendations of the NT fracking inquiry conducted by Justice Pepper. The Senate inquiry into the Beetaloo basin, in its majority report, recommended its implementation by 31 December 2023. That is a little more than a month away from today. Despite these commitments and these promises, the NT government have lifted their moratorium on fracking, and the water trigger is still not in place. With broad support across this parliament, we must urgently act to pass this bill and implement an expanded water trigger before commercial fracking gets the green light and irreversible damage is done. Now, more than ever, we need to listen to First Nations voices when it comes to protecting our environment. This bill is an opportunity to protect our rivers, aquifers and wetlands and the communities and culture they sustain.

With the government already committed to this reform, now laid out in this bill before the Senate, there is nothing to stand in the way of the implementation of an expanded water trigger by the end of this year. The ball is now in the government 's court. We hope to be able to work cooperatively across this chamber to get this reform done before mistakes are made and before damage is done that cannot and will not be reversible. I urge the Senate to pass this bill.