Kate Chaney (Curtin, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move amendment 11 as circulated in my name:

(11) Schedule 1, item 323, page 229 (after line 12), at the end of section 177DI, add:

(4) The Minister must publish a copy of the annual report on the Department's website within 20 days of receiving the report.

I'm speaking today about the importance of transparency in the operation of the new environmental offset system and, in particular, the amendment requiring that the minister publish the restoration contribution holder's annual report within 20 days of receiving it, which is what this amendment is. Now, this might sound like a small administrative change, but it is in fact an important improvement in transparency. Under the new framework, developers can pay a restoration contribution charge instead of directly securing their own offsets. That money goes into a central fund, which is then responsible for delivering restoration projects across the country. That means that we're asking Australians to trust that the offsets purchased on their behalf are actually delivering real, measurable gains for nature. And trust requires transparency.

This annual report will provide the first real window into whether that trust is being earned, and it will show where the money is going, which projects are being funded, what impacts they're offsetting, how much has been paid and whether these projects are actually achieving ecological outcomes. It's not enough for this information to exist somewhere in the system; it must be publicly available. That's what this amendment ensures—that this report is published within 20 days of reaching the minister's desk—because, if the public can't see the data, accountability disappears. And, without accountability, confidence in the offset system will crumble.

We've seen this story before. In New South Wales and Queensland, centralised offset funds have struggled to deliver promised outcomes, and part of the problem has been opacity. The public couldn't tell if projects were working, or even where they were. We can't afford to repeat these mistakes at a national level.

Offsets are meant to repair damage, not to hide it, and the only way to know if they're working is to measure, report and publish the results. This amendment makes sure that that happens. The offsets fund represents a potential single point of failure for these entire reforms, so making sure that the public can see whether they're working or not will allow us to continue to improve these laws.

So I thank the government for considering this amendment in good faith, and I commend it to the House.

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