Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Today I'll open with images of a drone flying over the Kanpa community.

As I soar through the sky above the vast expanse of the Gibson Desert, a mesmerising tapestry of nature unfolds beneath me. The rugged desert landscape stretches endlessly, adorned with ancient red sand dunes that rise and fall like waves frozen in time. The resilient vegetation of the region has adapted to the harshest desert conditions, painting the land with hues of green, brown and silver.

From above I witness the majestic presence of the iconic desert oak trees, their tall trunks and slender branches reaching towards the heavens, providing shade and shelter to life that thrives below it. The spinifex grass with its sharp blades and golden inflorescence creates a textured carpet across the desert, a testament to its ability to withstand the arid climate.

I gaze further and catch glimpses of wildlife that calls this arid oasis home. Kangaroos and emus roam the land, their large frames and distinct feathers blending seamlessly with the surrounds. A flock of zebra finches flutter and chirp and their vibrant plumage adds a splash of colour to the landscape.

In the distance I catch sight of the Kanpa community, a town serving as testament to the resilience, adaptability and connection to the land of the Ngaanyatjarra people who have called this place home for tens of thousands of years.

The sheer magnitude of this pristine desert landscape is a testament to the incredible diversity and resilience of unique life in this place. Following this, our sunburnt country has a natural beauty that is spectacular. And this is something that we must absolutely preserve for future generations.

Today, I'm proud to speak on a bill that will be transformative in addressing conservation issues in Australia. I remember speaking to a girlfriend who's a passionate economist. I complained about how we don't value our environment enough and that we have progressed at the expense of our planet. She pointed out that what it really means is that the economists haven't priced the externalities correctly. In many ways, this bill is doing exactly that.

The Nature Repair Market Bill creates a framework for a voluntary national market that delivers improved biodiversity outcomes through tradeable certificates. They're generated by landowners engaging in projects that embrace or protect biodiversity. I'm particularly excited by the potential for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to engage in this market, using the knowledge of their land embedded in their culture.

The Nature Repair Market Bill, in some ways, reminds me of the creation of a carbon trading market, which we had done under a former Labor government. In fact, this new bill will be overseen by the same regulator. From humble beginnings carbon markets are now worth over $1.3 trillion and they are the primary driver of emissions reductions in the world and are part of the world's largest shares in the EU.

I think it's amusing that the Leader of the Greens is comfortable with carbon markets but not on nature repair bill markets. The truth is, the way that I like to think about it is, our national parks are like our minimum wage policy, but what this bill does is add value to what we're doing in the environment.

The Albanese Labor government has set an ambitious target to protect 30 per cent of Australia's land and seas by 2030. This commitment reflects the recognition of the urgent need to preserve and safeguard the nation's natural ecosystem. By aiming to conserve such a significant portion of Australia's territory, the government demonstrates its dedication to ensuring the long-term health and resilience of our unique landscapes.

Achieving this goal will involve expanding and establishing national parks, conservation reserves and marine protected areas, while actively engaging with Indigenous communities and environmental organisations. This is something the Albanese government has already been doing. Today, in question time in this place, the minister for the environment discussed how the Albanese government has tripled the size of the Macquarie Island Marine Park.

The Albanese Labor government's commitment to align with the 30 per cent UN target adopted through the Convention on Biological Diversity and other geological initiatives to conserve and restore nature, sets an example for other nations. Through this ambitious endeavour, the Albanese government aims to foster a sustainable and harmonious coexistence between humans and our environment to preserve Australia's remarkable ecosystems for our children and grandchildren.

But it's more than just maintaining or mandating existing ecosystems. The conflict at the heart of conservation policy is a natural desire to hold matters of the environment as separate from world markets and economic development. This is not the world that we live in. Land is often touched by economic development, and we need smart ways to think about how we repair this land. Australia has some of the best regulations of reserves and national parks of any country in the world, but it's not enough. It isn't enough to deal with the crisis of habitat loss in Australia, it isn't enough to deal with the looming crisis of species extinctions of our unique wildlife, and it isn't enough to address the climate crisis, which, as we know, is affected by the destruction of complex and diverse carbon sinks. To properly protect our environment, we need to properly price the positive economic externalities that biodiversity gifts us, to incentivise the conservation of biodiversity on privately owned land and native title land. This requires putting a value on biodiversity and nature. This is an essential part of unlocking capital investment in conservation projects. We have international examples such as REDD+, the UN program to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries. Currently, this covers over 1.35 billion hectares of forest area in countries collectively responsible for 75 per cent of forest under threat of deforestation.

I grew up in Kambalda, a nickel-mining town, and one of the interesting things about growing up in that mining town is that, as students, we recognised that the land needed to be rehabilitated, and so one of the things that we would do was to go out to an old mine and then plant seeds and basically watch that land be rehabilitated. The truth is that we were also paid in cash, which helped pay for school camp. It was an example of a market and a way that we could repair the earth. So the truth is that it's been proven that we can unleash financial markets to incentivise conservation and thereby find innovative ways to monitor and conserve our lands.

There's a great example of conservation from WA. A Western Australian Aboriginal owned business called Marlee Djinda recently won grants from the department of infrastructure's Emerging Aviation Technology Partnerships Program. Basically, it aimed to promote Australia's unmanned aviation industry, also known as drones. A lot of Australian drone technology specialises in flying beyond line of sight in remote locations. With the support of this technology grant, Marlee Djinda have acquired cutting-edge spectral imaging systems and are now global leaders in integrating these capabilities. Marlee Djinda was formed to provide advanced drones and data services for Landcare projects. This enabled First Nations land corporations to access some of the most advanced airborne sensor technology in the world to assist with the conservation of biodiversity in country.

Marlee Djinda has several case studies directly applicable to the proposed nature repair market. One case involved the use of range sensors fitted to a long-range drone shell designed and manufactured in WA by a company called Innovaero. They basically mapped out the Ngaanyatjarra Council lands in the Kanpa community as part of a pilot land management program. The drone sensors were able to pick up signs of contamination from old mining exploration and detect invasive species and their density, as well as mapping areas of cultural significance that local elders have an interest in monitoring. Following on from the opening part of my speech, the images were stunning, and it's really important that we think about how we preserve that for future generations.

Another example of their work is happening near Esperance, which is in the member for O'Connor's seat. I had the pleasure of spending time with the member for O'Connor yesterday when we welcomed students from John Paul College—my old high school.

Out near Esperance, the Tjaltjraak Aboriginal Corporation's lands, Marlee Djinda has been using drones to monitor and control a highly invasive species called African boxthorn. It has done this by identifying its signature from the sky, both as mature plants but also as regrowth. This gives rangers a heads up when it's best to apply control methods and when they should work more efficiently. In partnership with Dr David Blake from Edith Cowan University, Marlee Djinda have recently taken up the crucial mission of addressing buyer diversity challenges in WA's Walpole-Nornalup National Park. This collaborative effort aims to protect the region's vulnerable peatlands, which are greatly impacted by climate change. Despite only accounting for three per cent of the world's terrestrial surface, peatlands store more carbon than any other ecosystem found on land, including in rainforests. By their leveraging technologies and capabilities, Marlee Djinda are working with other research and data collaborators to safeguard species that are critical to the healthy functioning of the Walpole peatlands. This focus extends beyond mitigating rising temperatures by also striving to shield these crucial species from uncontrolled bushfires and damage from feral pigs. I was so pleased to hear the member for Lyne's contribution to this debate and that he supports the removal of feral animals from wilderness and agricultural areas. I hope to see his support for this measure in the future, to use the amazing technological approaches we have available to remove harmful feral animals in Western Australia. Best of all would be to support this bill.

Through their work, Marlee Djinda is part of a group of collaborators, Aboriginal and land councils, dedicated to preserving biodiversity in WA. Drone technologies, paired with existing programs like Aboriginal ranger programs and financial incentives using the proposed nature repair bill, will help to empower Indigenous landowners to manage country, and will generate culturally sensitive economic development in some of the most remote and economically deprived communities in WA. This is an environmental program, but this program will also provide great opportunities to close the gap through environment led economic development. This means, potentially, better health outcomes for Aboriginal people in remote towns, more job opportunities and more hands-on land to help manage the country.

The other reason why it's really important that we protect biodiversity is because often we think that scientists have all the answers when it comes to our world's problems. The truth is that nature is really complex and has existed for tens of thousands of years. Often, the answers we're looking for in our modern life today are found in nature. That's whether it relates to medicines, aerodynamics or efficiency. So it's important that we protect it, not just for future generations but also for knowledge and scientific endeavour. If this bill unlocks even a fraction of the estimated $137 billion in potential finance available for investment in conservation between now and 2050, then it will have had a truly transformational impact on our nation by helping ranger programs, farmers and landholders to maintain our incredible and unique biodiverse Australian land.

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