Gabriel Ng (Menzies, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In Menzies, the electorate I am honoured to represent, we are blessed with a beautiful natural environment. The mighty Yarra River forms the northern boundary of the electorate. It runs through Warrandyte, where you can swim in the river or hike on the Goldfields Track. It runs around the beautiful Westerfolds Park, around the gardens of Heide Gallery and Banksia Park. We've got great tracks for cycling and jogging like the Koonung Creek trail and Gardiners Creek trail. We also have fantastic green spaces, like Ruffey Lake Park, Box Hill Gardens and Wurundjeri Walk, that are well loved by the community.

People in Menzies care deeply about the environment and the climate. Every Wednesday, people stand outside my electorate office holding signs and calling for stronger action on environmental protection. Groups like Menzies for Climate and the Australian Conservation Foundation Eastern Rosellas have become familiar faces in Menzies. They care deeply about the land, the rivers and the future we will leave behind for our children and grandchildren.

During the election campaign, you would see people like Sally, from Menzies for Climate, everywhere. She fights the good fight because she believes in protecting the environment. For her, it's personal. It's about the generations that follow, about her children and grandchildren. That is why I've always welcomed her and her group into my office to share their concerns and ideas. I've invited them to meet with the Special Envoy for Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience, the member for Jagajaga, Kate Thwaites, so their voices can be heard at a national level. While we might not always agree, we have a shared commitment to the future of Australia's environment. That is why it's important to make sure that people like Sally know that the Labor Party is the party for the environment. Every major environmental reform in Australia's history has been led by the Labor government. It was Labor that created Landcare, Labor that saved the Franklin, Labor that protected the Daintree and Kakadu, Labor that built the largest network of marine parks in the world and Labor that took real and measurable action on climate change. And once again, it is a Labor government that is taking the next great step to reform our national environment laws so that we protect nature for generations to come.

Our current environmental laws are outdated, inefficient and ineffective. They do not work for nature, they do not work for business and they do not work for communities. This was made clear in the Samuel review delivered five years ago to the then minister for the environment—who is now the opposition leader. The review laid out a comprehensive set of recommendations to fundamentally reform how environmental impacts and approvals are managed in this country. The coalition government sat on the review. Then they teamed up with the Greens and the Liberals to block reform when we brought it in the last term of government.

We know that reform is needed—and we're acting. The Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and six associated bills are not just about protecting the environment; they're about safeguarding Australia's future and creating a system that can protect nature while supporting the economic projects that our nation needs. This package of bills remains faithful to the spirit of the Samuel review. It is built around three key pillars.

The first pillar delivers on the central recommendation of the Samuel review: enforceable national environmental standards. The minister will be able to set clear, legally binding standards for matters of national environmental significance. These standards will apply to every decision under the EPBC Act. The goal is consistency, certainty and continuous environmental improvement. Businesses will know the rules, communities will know their rights and the environment will have guaranteed protection under law. To make sure the standards are never watered down, these bills include a 'no regression' rule. The bills also make it clear that some damage is simply unacceptable. Projects that cause unacceptable harm to protected matters will not be approved. These impacts cannot be traded away or offset. They must be avoided or mitigated before approval is granted. For those who ignore the law, there will be consequences. The bills introduce higher criminal penalties and a new civil penalty formula based on corporate law models. They establish new environmental protection orders that can be issued in urgent situations to prevent or remedy serious harm. They expand audit powers to allow both compliance and directed national environmental audits, and they strengthen the ability of courts to impose proportional and meaningful penalties. The bills also introduce a new principle: projects must deliver a net gain for the environment—not just 'no net loss', but real improvement. Proponents with residual environmental impacts must compensate those impacts to a net positive outcome. They can do so by either delivering their own offsets or paying a restoration contribution into a new Commonwealth fund. That fund will be used to deliver large-scale restoration projects that achieve the best outcomes for the environment. This approach is better for nature and it's more efficient for business. It allows for strategic and pooled investment in areas that most need restoration.

The second pillar focuses on fixing a system that has become slow, inconsistent and confusing. Under the current EPBC Act, project assessments can take too long, with duplication between Commonwealth and state projects. These delays hold back investment in housing projects and in renewable energy projects, and they do not deliver better environmental results. These bills introduce large-scale bioregional planning. Instead of assessing projects one by one, we will map entire regions to identify development zones, conservation zones and areas in between. In development zones, projects will be able to proceed after registration with the minister. In conservation zones, projects will be prohibited unless a specific exemption is granted. By working in close partnership with states and territories, bioregional plans will provide faster approvals and better outcomes at a landscape scale.

These reforms will also streamline assessment pathways. Six outdated pathways will be replaced with one modern and efficient process supported by a simplified environmental impact statement pathway. The new system will reduce the approval timeframes by up to 20 days, cutting the statutory period from 70 days to 50 days or fewer. This will save businesses time and the economy an estimated $500 million each year.

The bills will also provide flexibility for urgent national interest projects. This includes emergency situations, such as natural disasters like bushfires, when land clearing may need to take place to protect further destruction. It may also be used in rare circumstances where a project is clearly in the national interest and the minister provides a public statement of reasons. Approval can proceed even if all environmental standards are not yet met. It maintains accountability for the minister, but it ensures there is some flexibility for exceptional circumstances.

The third pillar delivers one of Labor's central election commitments: the creation of Australia's first National Environmental Protection Agency. I was out doorknocking in Surrey Hills on the weekend just past in my electorate of Menzies, talking to people about the need for an independent EPA. Again and again, people agreed it was a reform that Australia needed, a reform that was overdue. This new, independent regulator will be responsible for compliance, enforcement and oversight across key environmental laws. The EPA will have statutory authority to issue permits, licences and enforcement actions. It will act independently of governments in its regulatory functions, ensuring that decisions are based upon law and science, not politics. For the first time, Australians will have a national watchdog focused solely on protecting the environment.

The EPA will also play a proactive role in helping businesses and the community understand their obligations. It will provide education and guidance, ensuring that compliance is achieved through support as well as enforcement. The EPA will also oversee the implementation of national standards under bilateral agreements with the states and territories, ensuring consistency across all jurisdictions. The bill also strengthens First Nations engagement in environmental decision-making. Traditional owners will be incorporated into environmental assessment and conservation planning. The Indigenous Advisory Committee will be formally consulted on the development of national environmental standards relating to First Nations engagement.

This package of bills is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reform our environmental laws. It builds on decades of Labor leadership and responds directly to the Samuel review's call for comprehensive reform. The Greens and the coalition have a choice about whether to play a constructive role in protecting the environment and improving efficiency for projects of national significance. The Albanese Labor government is getting on with the job of reform. I commend the bills to the House.

See this speech in context