Mary Aldred (Monash, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a pleasure to follow the member for Newcastle, because—while we differ on a number of aspects of the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025—as a new person to this place I do appreciate the real sense of collegiality that she has shown towards me in the last six months. I'd like to record my sincere appreciation for that.

It's a pleasure to rise to speak on this bill. I want to reflect—next week is the 50th anniversary of the dismissal of the Whitlam government and the subsequent election of the Fraser Liberal government. Some milestone achievements that were part of that government have been reflected in the parliament this week. We have, of course, the Freedom of Information Act, which was a crowning achievement of the Fraser Liberal government. It is disappointing to see the watering down and undermining of that bill this week, but it was a crowning achievement of a Liberal government.

And there were many milestones that the Fraser government implemented in respect of the environment. We had, of course, the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975. The Great Barrier Reef was declared a marine park. We ended sand mining on Fraser Island. We had the declaration of Kakadu National Park. We ended whaling in Australian waters and prohibited oil exploration and drilling on the Great Barrier Reef. And there were a number of internationally important conservation agreements, including a convention against trading endangered species, a convention on the conservation of seals in Antarctica and a convention on the international importance of wetlands.

I come from the Monash electorate, which is part of the great Gippsland region—which is the size of Switzerland. If you look at that entire regional area, there are some very important biodiversity and environmental aspects to that place. In my good friend the member for Gippsland's area, we've got the largest inland lake system in the Southern Hemisphere around Lakes Entrance. My good friend the member for Leichhardt has some family connections to Central Gippsland, which is known for its clean, green horticultural produce. We've got, in my electorate, Phillip Island, which, prior to COVID, attracted over a million international ticketed visitors a year, which I'm very proud of. It is right up there with Kakadu National Park, the Great Barrier Reef and other attractions. We also have some very special biodiversity and native wildlife species. We've got the orange-bellied parrot, which has its migratory flight path from King Island in Tasmania through our region to South Australia, also known as the Neophema chrysogaster. So environmental conservation and protection is something very dear to my heart.

I turn my remarks to debating this bill, the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, the first in a series of seven bills now being considered separately as part of the government's overhaul. From the beginning of this process, the shadow minister for the environment, the member for Moncrieff, has said one thing very clearly, and that is that environmental reform is too important to get wrong. As I referenced earlier, the Liberal Party have a very proud history and heritage on this issue. Australians deserve reform that really tackles a number of imperatives: it protects our environment, and it supports jobs, investment and productivity. There should be room for all of those imperatives in the way that we approach policy and legislative reform. Unfortunately, this bill falls short on those areas. In fact, we've seen three years of promises and delays. The government has now finally brought forward—

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