Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Deputy Speaker. May I begin by congratulating you on your re-election as Deputy Speaker. I'm very pleased that my first contribution in the new parliament is to be speaking about the environment, something that's incredibly important to me and incredibly important to my constituents in the electorate of Canberra.

I just want to respond to the hypocrisy writ large from the coalition in bringing this as a matter of public importance today, when they did nothing for a decade in government. It is actually hard to see how the shadow minister kept a straight face for half of that speech, with some of the things that were put forward.

Like most Australians, I have been really concerned to see the devastating algal bloom in South Australia, seeing beautiful marine species washing up dead and the devastating impact that that is having. And I'm really pleased that our government has announced $14 million, partnering with the South Australian government and matching the funding they are putting in, to address this across priority areas including research and science, business assistance, community awareness and support, and clean-up efforts. This is critically important. But what those opposite seem to be ignoring by bringing this today is that what is driving this is climate change. That has been incredibly clear. It reminds me, having first been elected in 2019, what it was like to be here in opposition, with those opposite in government and doing absolutely nothing while a climate crisis unfolded—the Black Summer bushfires of 2019-20 going on while those opposite ignored climate science.

To come in here and claim that they suddenly care about the environment—well, I welcome that if they do, but it's going to take a lot of policy change on their side. In fact, at the moment, in the first week of parliament one of the first things we hear from them is that some of their own members want to bring in a private member's bill to drop their commitment to net zero. It is unbelievable. The other day I saw a great headline in the Betoota Advocate, who so often get it right, saying that the coalition, after ignoring climate science for decades, is also ignoring election results. What doesn't seem to be getting through to those opposite, after not just this election victory for Labor but also the previous one, is that Australians want to see action taken on climate change. They want to see our precious environment protected.

I am proud to be part of a government that is doing that, and I am proud to be part of the Labor Party, who are responsible for every significant environmental reform in Australia's history. It's extraordinary to hear what those opposite have said in this matter of public importance debate today. This is a coalition that had a decade in government to fix environmental laws and instead they cut funding to the Environment Department by 40 per cent. They halved highly protected marine parks, they sabotaged the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and they let environmental standards slide into chaos. They had the Samuel review of our critically important environmental protection and biodiversity laws, and they ignored it and actually used it as an excuse to try and weaken the laws.

Well, I am proud that one of the first things we are doing as a new government is to again try to reform those laws, as we attempted to do in the previous parliament. This is something that is incredibly important. We cannot protect nature without getting those laws right. We cannot protect nature without responding to the climate crisis. We cannot protect nature without an aim of getting to net zero. I mean, it's extraordinary that we are still even discussing this. Instead, those opposite took a nuclear fantasy to this election, which was more of a distraction from the climate crisis and the need to respond to it and a distraction from our plans to invest in renewable energy and transition us to a sustainable economy.

I am so proud of what we have already achieved in our first term and that we are going to continue that as a re-elected government, because this is critically important. This is about the future of our planet. This is about life on Earth. This is about our economy and so much more. Those opposite seem to be completely in denial about what is required. (Time expired)

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