Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Deputy Speaker Claydon, can I start my contribution by congratulating you on your return to the deputy speakership. You are a very fine deputy speaker and a great friend, and I congratulate you. I know you'll do a wonderful job this term, as you did last term.

But, as enjoyable as it must be sitting up there being the Deputy Speaker, goodness, it must be nice being in opposition. If you are the opposition right now, you are not burdened by self-doubt or anything, frankly, that is going on in the world around you. You are not aware of the fact that you've just had a catastrophic election loss. You are not aware of the fact that your environmental record is completely shambolic and, frankly, an embarrassment, nor are you aware, if you are in the Liberal party room, of the fact that your own coalition partner is tearing itself apart on national television on the very day that you come in and bring a matter of public importance about the environment to this chamber. Can you imagine the tactics meeting of those opposite this morning, Deputy Speaker, where they were all discussing what they should put forward for the MPI? The member for Moncrieff—who clearly is so passionate about this MPI that she stayed for some of it—as well as the hordes of coalition members who have come here to support her came in and had a tactics meeting: 'What should we bowl up for the MPI?' Then the member for Moncrieff says: 'I've got one. It's about the environment, energy and the climate around us.' No-one in that room decided to say, 'Maybe today's not the day.'

I'm very pleased that the member for Riverina is in the chamber, because I'm very fond of the member for Riverina. He's a very smiley guy, but he was really smiling in the papers this week. He had a grin from ear to ear, talking about his campaign to take down net zero. I've never seen anybody enjoy himself that much. He was standing next to his old friend the member for New England. They were thick as thieves. The member for New England and the member for Riverina were both absolutely delighted with themselves at getting that sort of coverage and attacking the net zero policies.

You'd think, 'Well, goodness!' While those opposite—the Nationals especially—are still working out whether the planet is a sphere or completely flat, you'd think that maybe today is not the day to be bringing in an MPI about the environment. But, alas, life is good in the opposition. They are not burdened by self-doubt in this place. You would think: 'Okay, fine. Let's look at what they actually did in the environment and energy portfolio and anything that affects our amazing country and all of the natural wonders that we have to protect.' When they were in government, there were a couple of highlights. You may want to take a walk down memory lane on their record on the environment.

In fact, the Leader of the Opposition was the environment minister when they were last in government. I remember sitting in this chamber. I was one of the few members of the opposition at the time who actually had the privilege of speaking on her reintroduction of Tony Abbott's environment laws before she decided to completely scrap all debate. She wasn't willing to debate it at all in the House of Representatives. They rammed the bill through the House of Representatives and then pulled it in the Senate, thankfully, because they didn't have the numbers in the previous iteration of their own government. That was the legacy of the Leader of the Opposition when she was the environment minister. It wasn't to have a constructive debate on the environment; it was to ram through Tony Abbott's environmental laws, which would have completely removed the federal government from environmental approvals. They were going to give it all to the states, and what we know is that the states and territories have different standards on environmental approvals.

The amazing thing about it all was that the Leader of the Opposition, who was the environment minister, commissioned Professor Samuel to do a review into the environmental laws, and he said that the key problem was that this chamber needs to have federal environmental standards in order to ensure that there are national environmental standards that are adhered to and implemented. That was the key recommendation of the Samuel review. What did the Leader of the Opposition do at the time? She ignored her own review, brought in Tony Abbott's legislation, rammed it through this place and then had to walk back home to her own electorate without a bill, because the Senate rejected it.

All of this happened when they were last in government. Their record is abhorrent on the environment. But I have to commend them: on the day that the Nationals are still working out whether climate change is real, they decide to bring an MPI. Bravo! Keep it coming.

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