Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to also add my voice and make a contribution to my colleague's private senator's bill, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Expanding the Water Trigger) Bill 2023. I want to echo comments made by my colleagues Senator Hanson-Young and Senator Waters about the importance of this bill and the urgency with which we need to do this. This bill is, in fact, something that the government should have already done a long time ago. It ensures that all forms of unconventional gas development, or fracking as it's known, are assessed for their impact on water.

Before I go on, I want to address some of Senator Rennick's comments in relation to red tape. In my home state of Western Australia they've tried to introduce a mining exploration fee of $859. If anyone in the community—an environmental group, a traditional owner group—wants to object to any exploration in relation to the impact on water, this is being used as a tool to silence them. The red tape that is being referred to in this chamber today is in fact being used to silence the people who are objecting to its impact. We know fracking uses an exceptional amount of water. There are varying types, with one estimate from the United States government saying that one well alone can use between 5.6 million and 36 million litres of water. The Northern Territory government has said fracking can use the equivalent of eight to 12 Olympic-size swimming pools of water during the lifetime of just one well. And many fracking sites will have multiple wells. It's estimated that the Beetaloo Basin will have approximately 90 wells, which is remarkable, when you think about it.

The current legislative framework does not require the government to take this into account when issuing those environmental approvals for fracking. This requirement currently exists for coal-seam gas development and large coalmines if they will have a significant impact on the water resource. Senator Waters has already mentioned the impact in my home state of Western Australia and in the Northern Territory, where some of this is quite urgent. Closing this legislative loophole in a timely manner, which we're trying to do but which the government refuses to—despite the fact that they committed to this change—is also, as Senator Hanson-Young outlined, recommended in the Northern Territory's independent scientific inquiry into fracking of onshore unconventional reservoirs in the Northern Territory conducted by Justice Pepper as well as the Senate inquiry into oil and gas exploration and production in the Beetaloo.

So, the question begs: why are we ignoring all that? Why are we continuing down this pathway, when we know water is so important for the life of this planet? It's a precious resource that we can't afford to throw away, particularly for dirty climate-destroying fossil fuel projects, without some serious scrutiny and proper consideration.

As a First Nations woman I know water is so crucial, particularly for the cultural vitality and resilience of my people, my culture and my identity. It has a very important place for us. That includes within our artwork, our sacred stories and our songs. And I think all of us in this place are familiar with the land rights movement that led to the monumental High Court decisions and legislation that included the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 and the Native Title Act 1993. However, the water rights were intentionally excluded from native title. Despite native title covering 40 per cent of this landmass, First Nations people have only 0.2 per cent of surface water being covered under this legislation.

Water is such a sacred resource for First Nations communities. As I 've already said, it holds life, sustains us, sustains our country. It's an integral part of what links us to our identity. It is something that in the old days we used in order to define our language boundaries, our ceremonial places, and it underpins many of our land management practices. The health of our water sources is vital to the health of our community in more ways than just having water to drink and rivers to fish in. As I've said before in this place, First Nations people are not separate from country. We are interconnected with it. We are one with country. That includes our land, our waters and our sky. So, if country is healthy, we are healthy.

I come from both freshwater and saltwater nations, and it is in fact my birthright to protect and care for country and for water, and I do this with pride for my people. I remember as a child hearing some of those stories about the creator spirit. If you listen closely in a welcome to country or an acknowledgement of country that people give, when they talk about country, they talk about the creator spirit. In my country it's called the Wagyl. The Wagyl was a creator spirit who created the waterways. He created the land formations. Further north, in my Yamatji nation, it's called the Bimara. Many of the other First Nations people around the country also have that birthright. They are fighting the same fight for their old people. It's in our blood. The importance of that can also be seen in my home state of Western Australia, where the people who belong to the Martuwarra River, which is famous for its recent flooding in Western Australia, gave a bark petition to the Western Australian government about saving a famous swordfish that is not found anywhere else. They talk very intimately about its worth, its importance and its spiritual connection for the local people who surround the Martuwarra.

That's why traditional owners from right across this country are fighting fossil fuel projects and water licences that already do and will impact sacred water sources and destroy our underwater cultural heritage. We are seeing this especially in the Northern Territory, where the Roper River is under threat from careless water licences that are being issued by the Northern Territory government. The Roper River is the second-largest river in the Territory. It spans 400 kilometres and has a catchment area of 80,000 square kilometres. It is home to plant and animal species that are not found anywhere else. That is the remarkable place of our continent, of our nations that make up Australia—that in fact there are plant and animal species that are not found anywhere else. More importantly, this is a vital source for First Nations people in the area that that spans, across the Roper. It's all under threat by this government and the Northern Territory government.

This bill is so integral and so crucial in making sure we close those loopholes. The traditional owners from the Beetaloo are already seeing the impacts of fracking, particularly the impact on the Roper. They were recently in this building, and they issued a statement which I'd like to read out now on their behalf. It says: 'Water is life for us. We need it to survive, and to keep country and culture healthy. Our communities will be some of the most affected by shale gas fracking. Our land is sacred. We don't want to see it fracked. Our water is sacred. It should not be poisoned. We can already see the climate changing. It is already getting too hot. We see the changes in the bush, in the seasons. 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. We ask you to pass laws in parliament this year to (1) extend the EPBC water trigger to shale and tight gas; and (2) revise the significant impact guidelines for the water trigger to require the consideration of the cultural and spiritual value and significance of water resources to First Nations people.'

It's unbelievable that we've just come out of a referendum with a government that says it's listening to First Nations people's voices. Last night I went to an event about Indigenous protected areas, where we had ministers from this place and from the other place talk about land and sea country and the importance of protecting that. You can't do that under ranger programs and then not pass laws in this place to make sure that the job gets done, because we put the onus onto the people and then they have to go into courts and mount legal cases to contest their country and their water not being protected.

This bill helps achieve one of those asks from people whose country will be most impacted by fracking and the water that it uses. The Greens have listened, and we implore people in this place to also listen and, most importantly, to do so with the sense of urgency that this deserves and absolutely needs. This is the birth right that I've been given, and it is our obligation to do so. These traditional owners and many others across the country are simply doing what we do best, protect our country, because we know that we've protected country and country will continue to protect us, but we must preserve that as we have done for 65,000 years.

The Native Title Report 2008 talks about Indigenous people having the 'right to the equal exercise and enjoyment of our human right to water'. This is really important because although people say that the states already have legislation, that they already have a mandate to do this and the Commonwealth doesn't have a place, the Commonwealth does have a place. There are seven different international instruments that talk about the protection of our rights to water as Indigenous peoples and we are signatories to all of them. So it is important for us in the Commonwealth to ensure that there is consistency. Right now on my desk is the draft report of the Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs inquiry in relation to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. How can we talk about domesticating that law when we're not even going to line it up with what we're talking about today? How can we do that when we're not going to protect the precious water sources that Indigenous people have a special connection to? We must ensure not only that it continues to be protected under international law but that it also provides the rights for us to practise, revitalise, teach and develop our culture, our customs and our spiritual practices and to utilise our natural resources in the way that we should be utilising them and not to have them destroyed in the interests of industries that don't have to live there, that don't have to raise their families there, that don't have to collect bush food there. Those industries can walk away from that. It is those communities that are left behind. It is First Nations people in the north of Australia who are at the forefront of this impact, who are fighting the impacts of climate change, who are fighting the big fossil fuel companies in this country—and, my, they are putting up a mighty fight against them.

I'm so proud of those nations for standing tall in relation to this. I implore the government to do the right thing today and support this bill to ensure that there is a water trigger in the EPBC Act in order to protect those communities, to make sure that we can hold people accountable for the impact that that will have on their waters, because they will be the first people moving into towns, moving away from country, becoming sicker and dying a lot faster, and that in fact is about closing the gap. It is our obligation, senators, to think about the impact of that legislation and to know that we have the power to change that. We have the power to make laws in this place to ensure that we are in fact closing the gap, because, as I said, healthy country means healthy people and it means a healthier environment.