Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That these bills be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech es read as follows—

NATURE POSITIVE (ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AUSTRALIA) BILL 2024

Labor is committed to a Nature Positive Australia.

Our economy, our livelihood and our well-being all depend on the health of our natural world.

We are delivering more than ever: on programs, projects, policies and 'on-ground' activities to create a Nature Positive Australia. We want a country in which nature is being repaired and is regenerating rather than being continuing to decline.

At the last federal election, Labor made a promise to establish an environment protection agency.

To ensure compliance with environmental laws.

To improve processes for business.

And to centralise data collection and analysis. So there is consistent and reliable information on the state of the environment across the country—to inform decision making and track our progress against our goals.

Everybody agrees that the current regulatory system doesn't work.

We said we will fix our laws so they're less bureaucratic and provide more certainty for business.

And so that they improve nature, protect our unique native plants and animals and prevent extinctions.

That's what the community expects and that's what we're delivering.

We have had hundreds of hours of consultations with more than 100 groups.

We've held public webinars that around 3,000 people have attended.

We have received around 2,500 submissions from people and groups passionate about these laws.

We are consulting extensively and comprehensively. This is a mature way to develop good policy.

We have taken the advice of Professor Graeme Samuel, commissioned by the former Government to report on how the EPBC Act could be improved.

We've already completed the first stage of reform. We passed legislation to establish the world's first Nature Repair market and expanded the water trigger to apply to all unconventional gas projects, in late 2023.

We're now moving quickly to establish an environment protection agency and Environment Information Australia. These are crucial elements of our plans to create a Nature Positive Australia, and we want to get them in place as soon as possible—so they can begin their important work.

We will keep working on the remainder of our reforms outlined in the Nature Positive Plan so we can get them into the Parliament and passed.

Combined with a significant additional funding, this stage of the reforms will deliver stronger environment powers, faster environment approvals, more environment information and greater transparency. These are big steps forward, for the environment and for business, and it's all new under this Government.

Environment Protection Australia, our EPA, is an important part of delivering the government's Nature Positive Plan.

Staging the rollout will mean that some of the teething problems which often occur in setting up new agencies like EPA from scratch would be dealt with before they are being asked to administer new environmental laws. It allows a smoother transition of responsibilities from the department to the agency.

We are establishing Australia's first national independent environment protection agency with strong new powers and penalties to better protect nature.

EPA would administer Australia's national environmental laws to better protect our environment and make faster, better decisions.

It would be charged with delivering accountable, efficient, outcome-focused and transparent environmental regulatory decision-making.

EPA would be a truly national environmental regulator that Australians can be proud of, responsible for a wide range of activities under Australia's environment laws, including in relation to recycling and waste exports, hazardous waste, sea dumping, ozone protection, underwater cultural heritage and air quality.

This independent agency's work would include regulatory work, such as issuing permits and licences and undertaking compliance and enforcement.

It would play an important role in educating industry, business and the community to help them navigate our environment laws.

By providing better guidance and education, we can make sure businesses are clear about the rules, so they can do the right thing.

We're investing in our people, our planning and our systems, to speed up development decisions—to deliver quicker yes's and—when necessary—quicker no's.

EPA would be the tough cop on the beat, enforcing our laws through new monitoring, compliance and enforcement powers.

The Samuel Review into Australia's environment laws found that the regulator is not fulfilling this necessary function.

Professor Samuel also found that serious enforcement actions are rarely used and that penalties need to be more than a cost of doing business.

Our audit of environmental offsets echoes this shameful tale. It tells us the current system is not working.

Preventing harm and checking and enforcing requirements is one of the most important things we can do to protect nature.

For example, if a project proponent promises to provide an offset to make up for an unavoidable impact on nature, the public should be confident that the promise will be kept.

Our bills respond to those findings of both the Samuel review and the offsets audit, while we continue to work on the rest of our environmental law reforms. Stage three will continue our broader efforts to halt and reverse environmental decline and protect nature.

EPA would deliver proportionate and effective risk-based compliance and enforcement actions, using high-quality data and information. It would provide assurance that environmental outcomes are being met.

Most businesses do the right thing. We know that.

But when penalties for breaking the law are too low, and the risk of being caught is negligible, some companies or individuals regard breaking the law as an acceptable cost of doing business.

That's why we are increasing penalties, too. For extremely serious breaches of federal environment law, courts would be able to impose penalties of up to $780 million in some circumstances.

Only individuals or corporations deliberately doing the wrong thing need to fear these penalties. These are the maximum penalties available. A court would still maintain discretion in deciding what penalty to impose in each case.

EPA would be able to issue Environment Protection Orders—or 'stop-work' orders—to address or prevent imminent risks of serious damage to protected matters in urgent circumstances. EPA would also be able to audit businesses to ensure they are compliant with environment approval conditions.

Creating EPA would promote public trust in environmental decision-making through publication of information, transparency of decisions and providing opportunities for the community, including First Nations people, to inform decision-making processes.

We were clear in our Nature Positive Plan that our EPA would be independent.

The first national, independent EPA in this country.

That it would have its own budget and be led by a Chief Executive Officer.

This bill delivers that. It establishes EPA in legislation as an independent statutory agency, separate from the environment department and the government.

The CEO would have the discretion to perform their functions, and exercise their powers, without being subject to the direction of a Minister or anyone else.

But they would be expected to operate consistently with Government objectives. The Environment Minister can issue the CEO and EPA with a formal Statement of Expectations.

Through Statements of Expectations, the Minister can provide greater clarity about government policies and objectives relevant to EPA, including the policies and priorities the agency is expected to observe in conducting its operations.

The CEO must respond with a Statement of Intent.

The exchange of statements recognises the independence of the statutory agency.

This is common for government statutory agencies—like the Australian Tax Office, Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Securities and Investment Commission.

EPA's performance against these statements would be examined when independent reviews of the administration of EPA are undertaken.

These reviews provide opportunities to test the operation and performance of EPA and its CEO, and the settings the government has put in place over their remit.

Early and regular reviews hold EPA and the government to account.

Hiring and firing of the CEO are significant and important tasks, not to be taken lightly.

The Governor-General would have powers to appoint and terminate the CEO.

Good practice, enshrined in the Australian Public Service Commission's Merit and Transparency Policy, upholds that appointments should be open, transparent and merit-based.

That is our clear intent.

Similarly, termination must be justified. This bill would provide clear grounds for termination of the CEO by the Governor-General, including failure to carry out statutory duties, dishonesty, financial mismanagement or misbehaviour.

This CEO would be supported by an advisory group, to ensure that they have access to the expertise they need to do their job.

This is a big step. An important step in delivering on our Nature Positive Plan. We want to get EPA in place as soon as we can.

Our EPA would initially operate within the department to administer Australia's current national environmental laws, until it becomes an independent statutory agency on 1 July 2025.

New compliance powers and penalties would come into effect as soon as possible following passage of the legislation.

Responsibility for assessing environmental approval applications would be delegated to the CEO of EPA.

The CEO of EPA would also be a delegate of the Minister who can make approval decisions, as currently occurs with the department.

The CEO cannot subdelegate their decisions any further. Only the Minister can choose to whom to delegate their EPBC Act decisions.

The Minister would retain the power to make decisions where they wish to do so. And, in practice, will make decisions the Minister makes would be based on the advice of EPA.

EPA would play an important role in the full delivery of the Nature Positive Plan and beyond.

EPA would advise the Minister and government of the day on how Australia's environmental laws can be improved.

EPA would work closely with Environment Information Australia, as well as state and territory governments, to enable better availability and use of environmental data, both in planning and decision-making.

NATURE POSITIVE (ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION AUSTRALIA) BILL 2024

In the Nature Positive Plan, we committed to provide the public with easier access to up-to-date environmental data.

To make high quality data and information publicly available.

And to increase transparency and public accountability on matters affecting the environment.

This Bill establishes the Head of Environment Information Australia.

An independent position with a legislative mandate to provide environmental data and information to EPA, the Minister, and the public.

An independent position to transparently report on trends in the environment. This will support actions and decisions to halt and reverse the decline, and in turn protect and restore nature.

Charged with working in collaboration with Australia's experts, scientists, and First Nations people to collect information and produce consistent tracking of the state of Australia's environment.

And charged with leading Environment Information Australia, a division in the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water.

A Nature Positive Australia is good for the economy, livelihoods and wellbeing.

But achieving a Nature Positive Australia relies on good quality and useful environmental information.

Information to inform investment, policy and regulatory decisions by government, the private sector, community groups, academics and scientists, and philanthropic groups.

We know that national environment information and data is fragmented, its quality uncertain, and what is available is not readily accessible and useable.

Through its public portal, the Head of EIA will be a source of the best available, verified environmental information.

A consistent and reliable resource for business, enabling better site choices to avoid removing high value habitat for our unique plants and animals.

When project proponents are more easily able to select sites which minimise impacts on nature, projects can be approved more easily and completed more quickly.

A consistent and reliable source of environmental reporting, will mean that no Australian government can hide the truth about the state of our environment—like the previous government did.

Environment data and information comes from a variety of sources. There are a lot of organisations doing great work to further our understanding of nature.

The Head of EIA will form partnerships with government and non-government organisations with a shared purpose of making data better, easier to access, and more useful.

This includes partnering with State and Territory government organisations to provide a rich national picture of the environment.

The Head of EIA will also gather information relevant to the Minister and the functions of the CEO of Environment Protection Australia.

Our improved information and data will underpin faster, clearer decision making. It will also avoid the need to collect and provide the same data over and over again.

We recognise that there are good reasons why certain information and data should not be made publicly available.

Our Bill balances the need to make more information public, while protecting information where the public release of it could cause harm—for example, to individuals, businesses, critically endangered species, or for cultural reasons.

It applies protections on the use and disclosure of sensitive information to individuals but allows information essential to inform Environment Protection Australia's decision making to flow between it and the Head of EIA.

The Bill also provides more transparency of the critical information and data that underpins regulatory decision making.

The Head of EIA will establish an integrated and robust reporting framework to monitor the impact of environmental actions and decisions.

This was a key recommendation of the Samuel Review. It delivers on our promise at the last election to provide consistent and reliable information on the state of the environment across the country.

The Bill also defines, for the first time, the term 'nature positive' and introduces a requirement to report on Australia's national progress towards that outcome.

This will be the first time that any country has defined 'nature positive' in legislation and put in place national reporting against this objective.

In short, nature positive means improving our ecosystems, including the species that rely on, and form part of, an ecosystem. Creating a Nature Positive Australia means that, across Australia, nature is repairing and regenerating rather than continuing to decline.

Defining and measuring this outcome against an explicit baseline will mean that we can be accountable for our collective efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity degradation.

The Head of the EIA will be charged with developing and implementing a monitoring, evaluation and reporting framework to report on nature positive, including setting a baseline. This will be an independent function of the Head of EIA.

The preparation and publishing of the State of the Environment report will be another independent function of the Head of EIA.

Previous State of the Environment reports have been backwards looking and shone a spotlight on the environment's continual decline.

Requiring reports to be prepared and published online every 2 years, instead of every 5 years, will allow us to get on the front foot and better apply and track protections where they are most needed.

The 2021 State of the Environment Report set a benchmark with the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in environmental reporting.

We recognise the important knowledge and unique perspective that Indigenous Australians provide. This Bill ensures that future reports must incorporate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and knowledge.

The requirement for these reports to combine scientific and Indigenous knowledge, with contributions from independent experts, will ensure the reports are based on the best available information and analysis.

Australia's environment is a national asset and responsibility. This is why State of the Environment reports include a new requirement to report on the progress of the Government's national environmental goals. The Bill makes it a requirement for the Government to commit publicly to national environmental goals.

The Government will be held to account on its actions and the progress of the commitments will be transparent.

The Bill introduces a new requirement for the government to respond to State of the Environment reports within six months. It is expected that the response will incorporate input from the States and Territories.

It is the responsibility of the Commonwealth, State, and Territory governments to work together to achieve environmental improvements. The Commonwealth also provides an important leadership role.

The data used in reporting and analysing trends will be robust and the best available.

The Head of EIA will have a leadership role to establish and maintain Environmental Economic Accounts. The Head of EIA will also prepare an annual statement of Environmental Economic Accounts.

The Bill gives the Minister the responsibility of tabling the statement in the Parliament each year, to provide a national picture of how the health of nature is supporting the health of the economy.

The challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, air and water pollution, carry implications for the economy, the environment and the wellbeing of future generations.

Australians care about and want to preserve the environment for our children and grandchildren. Australians also care about a strong economy and having secure, paid employment.

Regulators and regulated industries increasingly desire dependable information and structure to devise and plan for regulations that protect the environment, while growing the economy and creating jobs.

The work on environmental economic accounting will bring together, and make sense of, information about the interrelated challenges and opportunities facing our important industries and the environment.

It will also show both economic and nature positive gains that can be made by investing in the environment. This will lead to better decisions by government, business, and the community.

NATURE POSITIVE (ENVIRONMENT LAW AMENDMENTS AND TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS) BILL 2024

The Minister for the Environment would retain responsibility for direction-setting and Australian Government policy under national environmental laws, including the determination of nationally protected matters.

With this bill we are amending nine pieces of environmental law to give appropriate responsibilities to our independent national Environment Protection Australia.

This is consistent with the approach outlined in our Nature Positive Plan.

These amendments would confer permitting and licencing, and compliance and enforcement responsibilities directly onto the CEO of EPA, including in relation to recycling and waste exports, hazardous waste, sea dumping, ozone protection, underwater cultural heritage, air quality and species permitting.

It also would allow for the Minister and Secretary to delegate their powers and functions under the EPBC Act to the CEO and EPA staff.

It would confer key compliance and enforcement powers in Commonwealth protected areas directly onto the Director of National Parks.

It also supports the establishment of Environment Information Australia by repealing existing State of the Environment provisions from the EPBC act.

As part of our Stage 2 reforms, we are making a number of important changes to the EPBC Act that would commence immediately after the passage of legislation.

The compliance powers available under the EPBC Act have not kept up with modern standards or community expectations.

That is why we are also introducing critical changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to deliver stronger enforcement.

This bill would expand and update audit powers, introduce environment protection orders, increase criminal and civil penalties for serious contraventions and introduce a civil penalty formula.

We know that most businesses do the right thing.

However, the changes to the civil penalty formula would bring it into line with similar federal regulatory regimes such as those that apply to financial crimes.

As with the legislation on financial crimes, this new regime would allow an appropriate financial penalty to be given that reflects the seriousness of an offence and is of substance to deter and punish misconduct.

Our framework would provide flexibility in the range of penalties that can be given for the most egregious offences, safeguards against the consequences of an unlawful action being considered a cost of doing business, and ensures financial penalties can be commensurate to the value and capacity of a body corporate.

New compliance audits would provide more flexibility to audit a range of activities covered by the EPBC Act.

Existing directed audits will be expanded to cover a greater range of circumstances.

Environment Protection Orders (EPO), similar to the powers that state and territory EPA's have, are intended for use in response to urgent circumstances where there is an imminent risk of serious damage to a protected matter, or where the damage has already occurred.

These would only be used where the Minister or CEO of EPA reasonably believes there has been or is likely to be a contravention the EPBC Act.

An EPO would need to be revoked where the Minister or CEO of EPA reasonability believes it is no longer necessary.

These would all add to the compliance and enforcement powers of EPA.

The 'stop clock' amendments would allow proponents to tell the decision-maker that they do not want certain decision-making timeframes to be paused while additional information is sought.

It would give proponents a greater say over statutory timeframes.

These changes would give proponents transparency about why additional information is needed because the Government understands the very real cost of delays to business.

This is a balanced set of reforms, that moves quickly to set up crucial institutions and reporting. And would get them in place as soon as we can.

So that work can continue in Stage 3 of our Nature Positive Law reforms.

We will keep working with individuals and groups—as we have done to date—to develop the remainder of our reforms so we can get them into the Parliament and passed.

That's what the community expects, what we will deliver.

Claire Chandler (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In accordance with standing order 115(3), further consideration of these bills is now adjourned to 19 August 2024.