Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I return in continuation to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Reconsiderations) Bill 2025, and, when the Greens party in this place earlier were carrying out yet another stunt, bringing a dead fish into the chamber completely against any standing orders or any good sense for that matter, it did put me in mind—I've already quoted one movie today, but I'll quote another one—of TheGodfather. I did wonder whether Senator Hanson-Young wasn't commenting on Tanya Plibersek's career when she brought that dead fish into the chamber. We all remember that classic scene from The Godfather where Luca Brasi's jacket was returned to the Corleone family wrapped around a dead fish, and Michael Corleone looks at the dead fish and doesn't understand. He hasn't grown up with the mafia traditions, and his brother explains to him that the dead fish, of course, represents swimming with the fishes—it means Luca Brasi is dead. I do wonder whether that was some reflection on the career of Minister Plibersek and the decision that this government has taken. But if there's any blame to be shared at home, it's to be directed to the minister, because she has now kicked the can on the North West Shelf project down the road past the election date, trying to cover for this government's lack of decision-making ability. Now, for political reasons, the Labor Party has decided to override the EPBC Act here, and, again, I'll pay tribute to Tasmanian senators—Senator Chandler is in the chamber—who have stood up for the salmon industry in their home state, and rightly so.

It does beg the question of why a $30 billion project in my and Senator Cash's home state, Western Australia, is being kicked down past the election. Why? Why would they do this, Senator Cash? I ask the question. Is it because it causes too many problems within the Labor Party itself for them to make a decision? Is it that they don't think the six years of consideration given to it at the state level is worthy, even though that was completely under the control of their own Labor colleagues in Western Australia, the Cook Labor government? There has been six years of consideration and approval, yet even though the first due date was 28 February, and then another date was set—that was changed, again—now it's been kicked down past the election. It should cause everyone whose job in Western Australia relies directly or indirectly on the oil and gas industry or the mining industry, as well as small businesses that rely on gas as an energy source, to worry, because we have commitments to our trading partners overseas, and we must meet those commitments.

I was lucky enough to be in Japan last year, meeting with very senior figures. The supply of gas to Japan, particularly from Western Australia, is absolutely essential, not just for their economic security but for their national security. Anyone who thinks that the relationship with Japan, particularly in the challenging geopolitical circumstances which the world faces, is not of utmost importance to Australia is, quite frankly, fooling themselves and letting down the whole of this country, particularly my home state of Western Australia.

But it's not just that we need to do the right thing by our export partners, our partners that helped invest in those projects—billions of dollars in those projects in the first place. We also need to do the right thing by my home state of Western Australia. The fact is that there is risk to the near-term gas supply—that is, in the next four or five years—if this project is not given the go-ahead.

This is not a new project. That is the thing that is so baffling to all Western Australians. This is not a new project. This is a continuation of a project that was begun in the 1970s. I was a lad of seven or eight when the North West Shelf first kicked off under Sir Charles Court. It is ridiculous to think that the Greens can somehow describe this as a new project. It isn't, in fact. It's a decades-old project. It is ridiculous that this extension they are seeking was with the Western Australian state Labor government for six years, but the fact that the federal Labor government cannot make a decision keeps delaying the project, kicking the can down the road, whether for political reasons or because they know they might have to make a deal with the Greens after the next election to retain government. It's horrifying, and it should be horrifying to every Western Australian. You can be sure of only one thing. If you believe in the economic future of Western Australia, if you believe in the ability of households to continue to get their energy supplies, if you believe in manufacturing in Western Australia, and if you believe in the jobs of all those FIFO workers linked to the mining industry and the oil and gas industry in Western Australia, there is only one way to protect them, and that is: don't vote for Labor, don't vote for the Greens; put Liberal as No. 1. That is the only way of protecting those jobs, our economy, our future, our relationship with key partners like Japan and $30 billion worth of investment in Western Australia. The only way you can protect that is to vote Liberal No. 1 and put Labor and the Greens last in the upcoming election.

Fatima Payman (WA, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last month, I described the political collapse of negotiations and the quiet death of the nature-positive reform as emblematic of this government's Blairite, Third Way fence sitting on the environment, and I stand by it. That failure didn't please anyone—not industry, not conservationists and not communities—because the truth is that the current EPBC Act isn't working for everyone. In fact, it's working for no-one. It fails to provide real protection for our environment and it offers little certainty for industry. Instead of addressing that failure, this government has decided to double down with a bill, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Reconsiderations) Bill 2025, that makes it painfully clear whose side it's on—and it sure isn't the environment's.

The so-called reconsiderations bill will shut down the reconsideration process currently underway into salmon farming in Macquarie Harbour. It effectively pulls the plug on efforts to protect the critically endangered maugean skate. More broadly, it risks silencing communities across the country by restricting their ability to seek reviews when environmental threats emerge. Let's be clear; this is not a small procedural tweak. This is a calculated rollback of public oversight, one that could leave entire ecosystems unprotected if species that were once considered secure become threatened over time. It removes the power of the Minister for the Environment and Water to intervene when the facts change, because, apparently, for this government, evidence based decision-making is too inconvenient.

These changes didn't arise from some sweeping public mandate or scientific consensus; they were driven by an ongoing conflict between the business interests of salmon-farming giants in Macquarie Harbour and the survival of a species found only in those waters. On the very same day that this bill was announced, 20 March, Huon Aquaculture, a Tasmanian salmon-farming company, had its RSPCA animal welfare certification revoked. You may be asking why. It was because employees were caught on camera sealing live salmon in crates alongside dead ones. These are supposedly the good guys in the story.

This bill is a direct intervention in an active reconsideration process about the risk salmon farming poses to the maugean skate, and let's not pretend this is just the environment minister's doing. The Prime Minister himself, who seems to have quietly assumed the role of de facto environment minister after sidelining Minister Plibersek, has once again overridden sound judgement with political opportunism. And it's not just me saying this. Let me remind the chamber of what Senator Grogan said just last month when the coalition tried to pull the same stunt. She called the reconsideration mechanism 'an important safeguard in our environmental decision-making'. She then continued, saying:

Limiting reconsideration requests beyond three years and limiting who can make them is highly problematic. You're turning it into an entirely political situation, as opposed as a scientific, factual one …

That was just one month ago. Would Senator Grogan repeat those words now? Would any Labor senator repeat those words? I highly doubt it.

This isn't an isolated case. We're watching a disturbing pattern emerge. Labor continues to endorse coalition policy, not out of conviction but out of fear of losing political advantage. We saw it with the passage of the mandatory sentencing laws—legislation that flew in the face of Labor's own platform. We saw it again with the migration bills—so callous, so dehumanising that even the coalition's shadow immigration minister remarked that they were 'basically running the immigration system from opposition'. At what point will the Labor government's paper-thin principles give way to real moral clarity? Or is that possible only if they're dragged to it, kicking and screaming, by the political necessity of a minority government, which now looks increasingly likely to be the result of the upcoming May election?

This chamber could be doing real work. We could be passing the free-TAFE bill. We could be legislating the long-overdue 20 per cent cut to HECS-HELP debt. We could be fixing the EPBC Act in a way that protects the environment for the generations to come. Instead, here we are debating a bill that actively undermines those goals. And the timing is no coincidence. With the budget freshly phlebotomised and the public's attention elsewhere, this bill has been quietly ushered in, slipped through while no-one is watching.

This bill is not just a threat to the maugean skate. It is a threat to biodiversity, habitats and our already fragile ecosystems across Australia. It is the wrong decision, and it will go down as yet another black mark on the Albanese government's environmental record—a record marked by hesitation, capitulation and political cowardice.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Reconsiderations) Bill 2025. In the first instance, can I just say thank you to the shadow minister for the environment, Senator Duniam, and the Tasmanian Liberal team. If not for their efforts prosecuting the case for the Tasmanian salmon workers down there in their home state, then, quite frankly, these people would have lost their jobs. They have quite literally, through their strong advocacy—standing up for people in Tasmania whose jobs would have been at risk if this legislation did not go through—forced the Albanese government to come to the table.

Tonight, this will finally put an end to the chaos that has been visited upon the Tasmanian salmon industry by the Albanese government and Minister Plibersek. But when you look at the title of the bill and you actually explore the bill, you see that there is so much more to it. This bill is emblematic of the chaos within the Albanese government, and this has been going on for some time now. This is not the first time this chaos has arisen. It has been happening for some time now over the environmental portfolio. In fact, some may say they haven't seen the relevant minister, Tanya Plibersek, for some time—and they'd be right, because she has been emasculated: she is not allowed to make decisions in relation to this portfolio, because, as we all know, the decisions that she would make would bell the cat in relation to what a future minority Labor-Greens-Teal government would look like. So she is literally being silenced until after the election. And no greater example of this silencing of a minister—who, but for being silenced, would make a decision, but a decision that is adverse to the people of Western Australia—is the one in relation to the extension of the North West Shelf gas hub.

Anyone in Western Australia can tell you that this project is of vital importance to our great state. Quite frankly, it is an absolute disgrace, an act of cynical political manipulation, that, regarding the decision on whether to extend the life of this project—and it's not just about the life of the project; it's about what this project does, which is basically ensure that Western Australians have a supply of gas, are able to turn their lights on, whether for people living at home or for businesses, going to work every single day—Mr Albanese has told Ms Plibersek that, even though she should have made the decision last year and given certainty to the industry and, more than that, showed their true colours to Western Australians, the decision has been delayed.

If that was not bad enough, there was last night. 'Sneaky' is all you can call this. Last night, on budget night, what did they quietly do? They did it with no fanfare, no announcement, hoping that the people of Western Australia, who have long relied on the North West Shelf gas project—as I said, gas is where we get the majority of our energy from in WA. What did Mr Albanese do? He pushed that decision out, quietly quietly, until 31 May. What an absolute disgrace! At least have the guts to stand up, do a press conference and tell all Western Australians—in particular Premier Roger Cook, who himself stood up to Mr Albanese and said he would like to see this approved because the Western Australian government spent six years going through their approval processes and came to the decision that this project needed an extension. But, no, Mr Albanese doesn't want Western Australians to know, prior to the federal election, that he has well and truly walked away from WA. More than that: his policy decisions will have a detrimental impact on our great state. Any Western Australian knows we always need to fight to preserve our prosperity, and we are going to have a hell of a fight on our hands to preserve our prosperity in the shadows of a second-term Albanese government, governing in minority with the Australian Greens and the teals.

What's so disappointing, though, about the Western Australian federal Labor members is: where are they? Where are the senators? Where's Madeleine King, the member for Brand? Where's Patrick Gorman? He's the Prime Minister's assistant minister. Where are they every day in terms of standing up and doing press conferences, standing up for the people of Western Australia—for the people they allegedly represent—and saying: 'Get your skates on. Do something that's in the best interests of the Western Australian people. Make a decision, if nothing else, on the approval of the North West Shelf gas hub extension'? Western Australians expect the people they elect to this place to stand up for Western Australia, and that is something that the WA federal Liberal team have done time and time again. We were successful in negotiating a better share of the GST, Western Australia's fair share of the GST, and we will continue to stand up for our great state, in particular in the face of a detrimental decision to be made after the next election by Mr Albanese and Ms Plibersek.

Let's talk about what the North West Shelf actually is. Anyone who understands Western Australia knows it is an economic powerhouse for our state. This is not new. They're not asking if they can turn the first sod on a project. This is a project that has been in operation, ensuring that Western Australians have a reliable supply of gas, for 40 years. On top of that, it has delivered over $40 billion in taxes and royalties since 1984. Imagine if we were to take that $40 billion away from our economy. Imagine what we would not have. But thanks to Woodside, thanks to the North West Shelf project—as I said, it's been going for 40 years—that project has delivered to the Australian economy $40 billion in taxes and royalties.

But more than that, this is where Mr Albanese's true colours are coming through. Your true colours are coming through here. You've walked away from WA. What's worse is you don't have the guts to make a decision and tell us where you sit on this project. This is a project that has provided mums and dads in Western Australia, small businesses in Western Australia, manufacturers in Western Australia with a reliable source of domestic gas. That's what this project represents to us. It's not a big project up north somewhere. Mr Albanese, as the Prime Minister of our country, you are playing with our reliable source of domestic gas. You are playing with Western Australia's energy, and, quite frankly, that is unacceptable.

We've made it very clear that if we are given the privilege of being elected to government, we will ensure that we make a decision on this project within 30 days of being elected. It took Roger Cook, the Premier of Western Australia, six years to work through whether or not this project should be given an extension. And guess what? He did it. There is no logical reason not to given that the Premier of Western Australia—a Labor premier, ironically, given the stance of Mr Albanese working against our great state of Western Australia—has extended it. I can't see any reason at all that a decision cannot be made by this government.

We're going to put Labor senators to a test tonight. When this legislation is voted on, we are going to be moving an amendment. Senator Duniam and the WA federal Liberal team will proudly be voting for these amendments because we believe in the state of Western Australia. We will stand up for the state of Western Australia. We want to ensure that the people of Western Australia continue to have a reliable source of domestic gas. I say to all Western Australians: you know what you're going to get under us, under a Liberal government. You'll get certainty. You'll get certainty in the economic powerhouse that is our great North West Shelf. You will get certainty on billions of dollars of future royalties flowing through to Western Australia and the Australian economy. You will get certainty for mums and dads at home, for small businesses, for manufacturing businesses, for anybody who uses energy, anybody who uses gas. Under a Peter Dutton government, you will get certainty as to what we stand for.

What it also means is this: if Mr Albanese doesn't approve this project, people are going to lose their jobs. People in Western Australia will lose their jobs. Mr Albanese doesn't seem to care. So, you have a whole lot of people who currently work on the North West Shelf project who are doing what we, as Western Australians, need them to do each and every day. They've been doing it for years and years and years.

Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

High-paying jobs.

Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They're high-paying jobs as well, working on the North West Shelf. What does Mr Albanese do? Again, he walks away from those jobs in WA.

There is no logical reason that a decision on this project could not have been made last year. There is no logical reason that a decision on this project could not have been made in the first few months of this year. But I tell you, there is logic in putting one and one together and getting two as to why, on budget day of all days, when people are distracted by other things, Mr Albanese and Ms Plibersek quietly, without any announcement to the people of Western Australia, pushed the date for consideration of this project back even further until after the next federal election.

I don't know what more is needed for Western Australians to come to the understanding that Mr Albanese and his Labor government have well and truly walked away from WA. As I said, the Labor senators in this place will be given a chance later this evening to stand with the WA federal Liberal senators in standing up for Western Australia and showing their support for gas in our state. Senator Duniam is going to be moving an amendment—it is encapsulated in his second reading amendment and will also be moved in Committee of the Whole—that states the bill's changes to the reconsiderations regime should be substantially strengthened to ensure that all assessments of all projects across all industries do not remain subject to the open-ended review processes that currently exist. In other words, let's make sure that the minister, going forward, cannot in any way revoke a decision that has been made—in particular, in relation to the North West Shelf.

I foreshadow that I will also be moving a second reading amendment, to note that the Albanese Labor government has put thousands of Western Australian jobs at risk by delaying the decision on the proposed extension of the Woodside North West Shelf gas project. Key stakeholders, including the Premier of Western Australia, have put on record that Mr Albanese's actions will have a chilling effect on potential investment decisions. This is yet another example of how the Albanese Labor government has walked away from WA and doesn't have the back of Western Australians.

Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government today seeks to reform our environment laws by amending the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, not for the stronger protection of our natural world but to make it even more difficult for projects that impact our environment to be properly assessed. Australia is in the grip of a biodiversity and climate crisis. This has been clearly evidenced by researchers, experts and academics across the country. Yet today this parliament has before it legislation, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Reconsiderations) Bill 2025, that will further undermine our hope of protecting our environment. The major parties in this Senate are satisfied with rushing through this legislation this evening. They are not following the usual process of the Senate and they are not following the process usually taken after a Senate inquiry, leaving no way for a genuine opportunity to assess the impacts of these changes.

How can we trust this government when we consider the history of failed environmental protections in Australia? In the last two centuries, Australia has lost more mammal species than has any other continent. Our biodiversity rate—the rate at which that biodiversity is lost—is considered the second worst in the world. Let me frame that for you again: Australia's environmental protection laws are so weak that we are now a world leader in biodiversity loss. From 2000 to 2017, 7.7 million hectares of native habitat were cleared. Ninety-three per cent of this was cleared without any assessment under our environment laws. Beyond this, billions of animals have been lost to us forever through wildfires. Nineteen irreplaceable marine and land ecosystems around Australia have collapsed. The government cannot say that the cost of this biodiversity loss is unknown. Experts predict that it will quicken the collective collapse of our climate. Our food, our water resources, our economy, our human spaces and our beloved natural world teeter on the very brink.

The protective steps, as this government is framing them today, are far from that. The actual protective steps that we need to take today to conscientiously conserve our environment for future generations tomorrow should be the priority of the Senate this evening. The Labor government made a commitment in 2022 to the Australian community to actually reform our environment laws. Not only did they abandon this commitment but the Labor government are now rushing to intervene in a legal process and legislate the exact opposite, against the fulsome assessment of projects under our environmental laws. This is an absurd use of our parliament—to ram through significantly important policy and to gut our environmental laws in less than 48 hours without proper scrutiny or assessment. Australians expect better of their representatives than this. Australians who voted for this government with the assurance that it would strengthen our environmental laws have every right to feel angry and disturbed by what is happening here today.

Strong environmental laws are essential to safeguarding our precious lands and our native wildlife and to ensuring the resilience of our food and water resources and of our very communities. We rely on Australia's biodiversity to keep our ecosystems going. It is absolutely astounding that the basic protection of natural ecosystems is being overtly undermined and exploited for the benefit of industries and corporations. What is the point of the EPA and the minister for the environment if genuine challenges and appeals to environmental protections are being shut down by this Labor government?

The impact of the Labor government failing to take climate action and environmental commitment seriously is known to our community. Right now in WA, at the end of March, we are experiencing yet another heatwave. At 7 pm on Monday night, Perth was still sweltering through temperatures of 38 degrees. Yet we have the Labor government again siding with the coalition, whose leader has explicitly stated that he would speed through the approvals of Woodside's Burrup Hub, regardless. Just think about it. This is a man who has said he will speed up the approvals of Woodside's Burrup Hub in the full knowledge of the havoc that it will wreak on our climate and vulnerable ecosystems like Scott Reef.

It is sadly very simple. If we do not understand and prioritise the rebuilding of a healthy natural world, if we do not make sure that precious places like Scott Reef are preserved, then we will face the consequences in every shape and form in our society. We hear from community members who are doing all they can to decarbonise, to recycle, to manage their waste and to be sustainable in their lives. On the opposing side, we have new gas developments greenlit in New South Wales, for example. New South Wales is home to a community—

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Steele-John, it being 6 o'clock, you will be in continuation. We're going to move to valedictories now, thank you.