Simon Kennedy (Cook, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was Abbott, actually. I thought you might know that, having spent so much time here.

An honourable member interjecting—

If you're going to interject—if they're going to interject, Deputy Speaker, I'll be responding to it.

The coalition supports strong, clear environmental standards, but they must be practical. The concept of unacceptable impacts should sit within the environmental standards framework, as the Samuel review recommended, and not be buried by legislative grey areas. We also believe the new Environmental Protection Agency must be accountable to the minister, not be another layer of unchecked bureaucracy. When unelected officials make decisions that affect jobs and investment, someone in government must answer for them.

In Cook, my community lives on the front line of environmental change. Locals care deeply about our beaches, our dunes, our bushland and our marine life. We're surrounded by the Hacking River in the south, the Georges River in the north, and the beautiful beach of Bate Bay in the east, and we're surrounded by national park. We care about this area, and we've seen what can happen when pollution and erosion go unchecked: beaches narrow, ecosystems decline and our coastal identity suffers.

That's why I support strong action in building up our beaches We've got a fantastic local organisation there called C Care, which started with just three local surfers who had watched our beaches erode. They came together to form community around my local electorate in Cook and lobby the federal, state and local government to stop erosion action. I'm pleased to see—and I congratulate them—the Sutherland Shire Council listening to these grassroots community groups and the almost 1,000 people who signed up to the petition we put out. They have started to rebuild those dunes. But, unfortunately, Bate Bay needs long-term solutions. In storms, this sand will continue to erode, and we need to do more to protect the beaches.

We also need to do more to get strong action against plastic pollution. The Sutherland Shire has been a leader in this area. They had plastic-free Cronulla, where the business community self-organised to rid Cronulla of plastic—plastic plates, plastic cutlery and plastic takeaway containers—practical, industry supported measures that keep plastics out of our oceans and out of our food chains. I'd also like to acknowledge Councillor Kal Glanznig for his efforts in doing that, as well as Surfrider Foundation Cronulla and Joe Glendinning. My community wants rules that protect the beauty of Bate Bay, Cronulla Beach, Port Hacking and the Georges River as well as our bushland. We want beauty that protects Towra Point, Botany Bay and the UNESCO wetlands that surround my beautiful electorate. What the community don't want, though, is new layers of bureaucracy that delay the restoration of dunes and local habitats or that penalise industry.

This government talks big about biodiversity but has ignored the basics. While it might fund activist groups—such as the Environmental Defenders Office, which was judicially criticised in a Federal Court case for witness coaching and presenting evidence that was found to lack integrity—39 species have gone extinct under this government's watch, including the Christmas Island shrew.

That's a failure wrapped in self-congratulation. Under the coalition, Australia has led the world in rooftop solar, and I'm pleased to see that the government is still pushing this forward. In waste reform, our recycling modernisation fund helped transform the recycling sector, some of which is also in my electorate of Cook, as the Breen group looks at recycling and waste disposal. We looked at cutting plastic litter as well as expanding batteries and food waste recycling programs. We backed ReMade in Australia, the initiative to give consumers confidence that recycled products are made here, at home, in Australia—because we really do believe in a future made in Australia, not a future bailed out in Australia.

When it comes to coastal care, our focus has always been on local action: dune restoration, habitat grants and community clean-up programs—and there are a number of community clean-up programs every weekend in the electorate. Whether it is the community-organised ones, the Surfrider-organised ones or the Sutherland Shire Council organised ones, these programs are fantastic.

That's the balance we believe in: protecting the environment. But, critically, we must support jobs, tourism and recreation. The coalition wants an environment law that actually works, that protects our beautiful beaches across Australia and across Cook, that protects our beautiful bushland—like the Royal National Park on my electorate's doorstep—and that supports local jobs and the tourism that exists in Cook, as well as the local businesses, many of which have gone plastic-free, and restores the confidence of investors as well. We'll fight for a bill that's simple, that's strong and that's workable—one that cuts plastic pollution and safeguards our coastline but doesn't punish the people and the businesses that build Australia's and my electorate's future.

In Cook we are proud to be coastal custodians. We need a government that can match that pride with policy that works. Until it does, we'll keep holding it to account.

Some of the issues that we have in particular with this bill are that the CEO of the EPA must still be accountable to the minister and that the definition of net gain needs greater clarity, with guard rails in place to ensure certainty not just for industry but also for the environment. Labor is completely divided on whether they support jobs or the wealth created by our nation and its resources sector. They put off the decision on the North West Shelf until after the election, and then they sacked the minister responsible. Now a new minister has come in, providing preliminary approval for a project, while the Prime Minister has recruited a Greens defector who was vehemently against the project. Industry and business need certainty so that they can invest in Australia with confidence, to create jobs and boost our economy.

Earlier I spoke about the 39th extinction. We've got that extinction but also a growing number of animals now on the endangered list that previously were not. The 39th extinction came only months after the government's international commitment to prevent extinctions. It's a monumental government failing. It's a truly sobering statistic to have lost Australia's only shrew, and it's the latest in a litany of broken promises by this government.

Australia should be disappointed with the Albanese government's failure to act on the algal bloom that has been blooming for months and has significantly affected the South Australian coastline. The Albanese government failed to listen to scientists as long as 18 months ago. They failed to listen to scientists four months ago, when dead fish were washing up on those beaches. Today, more than 14,000 marine animals have died because of the Albanese government's failure to listen to these scientists. Today, local fishing and tourism businesses are hurting because the Albanese government failed to respond sooner.

South Australians, all Australians, should be disappointed by this Labor government, because all of this should have been addressed much sooner. If only they had listened to the advice. When Minister Plibersek tried to introduce these reforms into the last parliament, they were seen as too left wing for the Labor government, which is why the Western Australian Premier had to step in and contact the Prime Minister—and just like that, overnight, the bills were stopped on the eve of the election.

Labor have promised in two elections to deliver an environmental protection agency, and, after four years, they have still not delivered on that promise. Labor have now introduced the proposed reforms into this chamber. In trying to ram through these bill that have already been sent to a Senate inquiry that's due to report back on 24 March 2026, Labor wanted it to report back within seeks to allegedly try and pass the bills this year. That is not scrutiny; that's scandal. This set of bills and the explanatory memorandum are too long for us to consider in that time, and the Senate inquiry needs to be given the time to run. The minister is looking to do a deal with either the coalition or the Greens by calling these back from the Senate inquiry process to rush these through by the end of the year.

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