Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis QC. I refer to the successful court action by the Mackay Conservation Group to suspend federal approval for Adani's Carmichael mega coalmine in the Galilee Basin, which you called 'vigilante litigation'. Attorney, over the weekend, you mooted rewriting our national environmental laws to stop ordinary Australians from enforcing the law when governments and mining companies ignore it. Why are you so eager to put coalmining companies above the law? Could it be their enormous donations to your party?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, I am not aware that Adani donates any money to the Liberal Party, as a matter of fact. But this government is a strong supporter of coalmining—let there be no mistake about that. You, as a Queensland senator, should be ashamed of yourself for being party to attempts to destroy Queensland's most prosperous industry, the great engine of job creation in our state.

The Carmichael mine, being promoted by Adani, was a $16.5 billion project which in the initial stages would have created 2,600 jobs and across the life of the project was estimated to be worth 10,000 jobs. The fact, Senator Waters, that you are sitting there smiling and gloating at the fact that 10,000 jobs have been destroyed—10,000 jobs and livelihoods have been lost—by vigilante environmental groups determined to game the system in order to stop this important development, this important contribution to Queensland's economy, is a disgrace.

Senator Ian Macdonald interjecting—

Senator Macdonald, Senator Waters is a Queensland senator, but you would not know it. Senator Waters, in my view, the standing provisions in the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act are way too widely drawn, far too widely drawn. They are a red carpet for people who want to stop development to game the system by bringing vigilante litigation, and that is why the government proposes to deal with the matter. I hope you ask me a couple of supplementary questions, Senator Waters, because I look forward to explaining to you why those provisions are too widely drawn and why they are a threat to our economic security. (Time expired)

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. This is not the first but is, in fact, the second time that the environment minister has ignored crucial scientific conservation advice. Both times it has been the community that has had to uphold environmental laws through the court and has won, which you have just called gaming the system. When will the government start enforcing its own laws so that the community does not have to?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, what we are going to do is that we are going to have laws that work properly that respect the interests of all relevant stakeholders. The provision of the EPBC Act which I have particularly in mind, Senator Waters, section 487(2), gives standing to anybody who answers this description: an individual who is an Australian citizen or an ordinary resident in Australia who at any time in the two years immediately before the relevant decision 'has engaged in a series of activities in Australia or an external territory for protection or conservation of, or research into, the environment'.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Pause the clock.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order on relevance. The Attorney is demonstrating that he can read, but he is not actually answering the question, which went to when the government will start enforcing and upholding its own laws.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think, Senator Waters, that at the very commencement of the Attorney-General's answer he went to the nub of your question in relation to the reformation of the law. But I will listen intently to the rest of the answer.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, the provision in subsection (2) is so widely drawn that anyone—anyone—regardless of whether they have a material or relevant interest in a project has a capacity to approach the court to seek an order to stop it. That is why I used the term 'vigilante litigation', Senator, because certain radical environmental activists— (Time expired)

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. The community already faces huge barriers in trying to enforce the law when it is ignored by either vested interests or lax governments, so, as you would well know, only the most meritorious cases ever make it to court. The barriers include legal fees, strike-out orders for vexatious claims, huge potential costs orders and very restrictive grounds for review, and yet you want to go further. Are you the first ever Attorney-General who wants less law enforcement?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me say, Senator Waters, that I am not the first Attorney-General who wants law reform. When we see a provision in an act of this parliament that is so poorly drawn and so widely drawn that it actually encourages opportunists and vigilante litigation, then we ought to get rid of it. That is not just my view, Senator Waters. This is what Dr Lynham, the Queensland Labor Minister for Natural Resources and Mines, said: 'We're extremely disappointed that there've been delays to Adani in the Galilee Basin. You have to realise that this is a federal issue, and we've asked the federal government to sort it out as soon as possible.'

Well, we are sorting it out, Senator Waters, and we are expecting Dr Lynham's political colleagues from the Australian Labor Party here in the Senate to support us in doing the very thing that the Queensland mines minister has asked the federal government to do: to sort it out so that this provision does not constitute a permanent blockage for the capacity to develop the great coalmines of Queensland.