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

Australians are sick of the greenwashing and the greed of big corporations wrecking our environment and fuelling climate change. That is why today the Greens have secured major reforms in this piece of legislation, to protect our waterways from fracking and our wildlife from big developers intent on destroying habitat. The Greens have secured an agreement from the government to drop dodgy offsets from their nature repair scheme. We have ensured the passage of an expanded water trigger in our environment laws before the end of the year, which we know is crucial, to force fracking projects to undergo environmental assessment for their impact on water, which is owned by all Australians. These significant environmental reforms will go a long way to protecting nature and climate from greenwashed destruction and dangerous fracking.

The inclusion of offsets in a scheme to protect nature was a red flag to begin with and was a key concern raised by the Greens, the environment sector and many others around the country. Allowing corporations to pay to destroy nature is not nature positive. An offset scheme would not save our wildlife but would greenwash the expansion of habitat destruction for fossil fuels, logging and big development, which harm our environment. Scrapping these controversial offsets is key to ensuring that this scheme will not allow greenwashing and will not supercharge the destruction of nature.

The Greens' amendment, agreed to by the government, will explicitly ensure that no biodiversity credits generated under the scheme can be used for offsetting. This will ensure that this nature repair scheme is truly a voluntary biodiversity accreditation scheme. This can facilitate private investment in nature to work alongside the much-needed government investment in biodiversity to help protect and restore nature. That is going to be a job still to do.

This scheme can help unlock private land to facilitate biodiversity restoration and allow groups like farmers or First Nations communities to undertake projects to restore wildlife biodiversity and habitat in their area. First Nations communities must be at the forefront of nature protection and restoration. It is critical that this scheme prioritise engagement with First Nations communities to cooperate on potential projects. Indigenous led land management is the most effective and efficient means by which to improve biodiversity outcomes, and this amended scheme can help facilitate that. Protection and restoration projects that work to ensure additional biodiversity outcomes are critical to targets like achieving zero extinctions and protecting 30 per cent of land and sea by 2030. By excluding offsets—banning offsets, dumping offsets—and stopping these projects from being used to justify disruption elsewhere, this scheme really could help work towards those targets.

This scheme does not and cannot replace government investment and leadership in biodiversity protection and restoration. Critically, the Greens have also received a commitment from the government to regularly publish investment strategies to guide this biodiversity accreditation scheme and any priority projects. By scrapping dodgy offsets, the Greens have successfully stopped this scheme from becoming greenwashing destruction. Instead, it will now facilitate private investment in real, accredited biodiversity restoration that is good for the environment. Dumping offsets was always an important part of winning Greens support for this legislation. We fought hard for it and tonight we will deliver it.

As part of this agreement, the Greens have also secured agreement that an expanded water trigger will pass into law by the end of this year. This will close the loophole which currently gives gas fracking corporations a licence to drill without there being any federal environmental water assessment. Currently, the Minister for the Environment and Water is required to assess only proposed coal seam gas projects for their water impact. Hydraulic fracturing projects remain exempt from this requirement despite their significant impact on water. Clearly, this is wrong and out-of-date and needs fixing. Today, after months of campaigning and negotiating, the Greens will ensure this is fixed. This water trigger will cover all phases of unconventional gas development, including exploration, appraisal and production. It will provide critical protection for Australia's rivers, aquifers and wetlands and the communities that rely on them. It will ensure that climate bombs like the Beetaloo basin must be assessed; that they can't just go ahead without any national oversight. It will throw a lifeline to water resources like the mighty Roper River in the Northern Territory.

Fracking uses enormous volumes of water and puts ground and surface water at risk of contamination. This extended water trigger will ensure the minister is required to undertake rigorous assessment of these projects and their impacts on critical water resources. The Greens, alongside many environmental and First Nations groups, have worked tirelessly to ensure this trigger is extended to cover destructive fracking projects. I want to thank in particular the delegation of traditional owners from the Northern Territory who visited parliament earlier this year to tell us about the impacts of fracking on their country. 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 are all linked. These new environmental protections are critical in recognising this and protecting water resources into the future from the impacts of dangerous fracking. This is a hit on gas fracking corporations in places like the Beetaloo and the Kimberley. Closing the fracking loophole via the water trigger will mean gas companies will no longer be able to bypass Australia's environment laws, and fossil fuel companies will not be let off the hook for wrecking waterways and our climate.

After months of pressure and negotiation, the Albanese government has listened to the Greens' calls to deliver significant environmental reforms to protect nature and the climate from greenwashed habitat destruction and dangerous fracking—gas fracking. Scrapping the dodgy offsets that would facilitate the destruction of nature is critical to ensuring biodiversity investment that is additional and has integrity. Ensuring that damaging projects undergo environmental assessment is also critical for protecting biodiversity and our climate and communities. I want to thank the crossbenchers who will support these amendments that will be moved by the Greens and those we have negotiated with the government. I also want to thank Senator McCarthy in this place, who I know is very passionate about the water trigger in particular. I also want to thank Dr Sophie Scamps in the other place, who has fought hard to have this water trigger put in place as well.

Many, many Australians have long argued for an expanded water trigger—and tonight this is what they will get—to protect our environment and our waterways and to stop gas companies rigging the system, bypassing environment laws and thinking they can have whatever they want. Under these new laws, that will no longer be allowed.