Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Emergency Management) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks very much, Senator Hanson-Young, for the question. I think the most important thing to understand here is that the federal government will continue to exercise its powers under the EPBC Act as they relate to land management activities and water activities. The observation I would make is that the Northern Territory government has primary responsibility for land management activities, including land clearing, so approval under national environmental law is only required for actions that will or are likely to have a significant impact on matters of national environmental significance.

You'll understand that we are seeking to reform the EPBC Act. That is a reform process that has been underway for some time. There are laws before the Senate at the moment that include the establishment of a national environment protection agency that would have strong new powers and strong new penalties, and we are hopeful that senators in this place will provide support for that legislation because we think it is past time that we started to act on the reforms that were proposed by Mr Samuel and have been so widely consulted upon with stakeholders.

Environment Protection Australia will be a tough cop on the beat, and it will have strong powers and penalties, and it will be able to crack down on illegal land clearing. It will also be able to issue stop-work orders to prevent serious environmental damage and proactively audit businesses to ensure that they're doing the right thing.

My appeal to senators, including Greens senators, is to back these laws. They are before the Senate. We could debate them; we could get moving on them. It is a big process of reform. It's a process that business thinks is overdue and that the environment movement seeks to have come about, and we are looking for partners to pursue that. (Time expired)