Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today on behalf of the people of McPherson—from Clear Island Waters at the top to Coolangatta, and from Burleigh Heads across to Tallebudgera and Currumbin—to speak against Labor's deeply flawed environmental protection and biodiversity conservation reforms in the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and related bills. These reforms, some 1,500 pages long, have been rammed into parliament without the consultation or the balance that our communities deserve. It's another example of this government's emboldenedness, as a result of its election result, turning into arrogance—1,500 pages! Does the government really believe, in dropping the bills on us at five minutes to midnight, that five days during a sitting period is adequate time to meaningfully review 1,500 pages? This just reeks of arrogance. With an underresourced opposition, they are once again running away from scrutiny. Why are the Prime Minister and those opposite so allergic to accountability?

Let me be clear: we all want strong environmental protection. We live it every day on the Gold Coast—in our beaches, our hinterland and our estuaries. But environmental protection must go hand in hand with economic sense in order to maintain its social licence and sustainability. Labor's plan fails that test. Under these reforms, the new Environmental Protection Agency CEO will be granted sweeping powers to issue stop-work orders, with—and here's the catch—no end date. There's no clear timeline, no defined process and no guarantee of review. For our local industries, from small marine operators at Currumbin Creek to construction firms building new houses near Elanora, this means a single bureaucratic decision could halt work indefinitely. These orders could hang over projects for months, even years, without compensation or procedural fairness. In my electorate, where small and family owned businesses drive our economy, this isn't environmental management; it's regulatory paralysis. It risks turning compliance into punishment.

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