Nicolette Boele (Bradfield, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Australia's environment laws are broken, and we know this categorically from the Samuel review, finalised five years ago this month. Over three years ago, the then minister for the environment and water said the laws don't work to protect the environment or smooth the way for sensible development, all against a backdrop of accelerating environmental destruction. The current laws don't work—not for nature and not for business. On that, there is consensus. But the laws must work for both.

Where there is a tension between the two—where approval decisions could go either way—nature must win out. If nature doesn't win the battle in our environmental laws, it will not win it anywhere else. To achieve that, I implore the government to put in place this one safeguard. To reduce ministerial discretion in decision-making, we need an independent, statutory environmental protection agency with the ability to make decisions free from ministerial influence. It's ministerial influence that, time and time again, has resulted in the interests of industry being preferred over nature. Industry has a powerful voice, earned through decades and decades of political donations. Nature is voiceless. This week is Youth Voice in Parliament Week. For years, the youth of Australia have been using their voices so clearly, begging us to protect our natural environment and the climate which sustains it. This week, let's do what we must and let's listen to them.

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