Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to call on the Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens political party to support the Albanese Labor government's environmental protection bills. At the election, Australians endorsed our government's plan to keep building Australia's future—including our ambitious plans to protect our environment and act on climate change. We want to reform our national environmental laws to ensure we're protecting nature for generations to come. We know that the current laws are not delivering for the environment or for business or for the community. These measures address the critical issues identified by Professor Graeme Samuel in his 2020 independent review, which found that our national environmental laws are fundamentally broken. This isn't about making a choice between protecting the environment and protecting the economy, jobs and business. We know we can have both. We can do both. And that's exactly what we're proposing.

The reforms in these bills will deliver stronger environmental protection and restoration, more efficient and robust project assessments, and greater accountability and transparency in decision-making. We want to see decisions made faster with less duplication between state and federal processes. Too many projects, from housing developments to renewable energy projects, are just caught up in a tangled web of red tape. We want to modernise our environmental laws and establish Australia's first ever independent federal Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA. A federal EPA will be a tough cop on the beat, with real teeth. The creation of the federal EPA will bring together the regulatory and implementation functions of our national environmental laws under a single independent agency. The federal EPA will also be empowered to issue environmental protection orders, stop work orders and utilise expanded audit powers.

These reforms will also include the creation of a new ministerial power to make national environmental standards, which will improve environmental outcomes and give proponents greater certainty and clarity by establishing clear, enforceable standards for regulated activities. It will make clear that projects with unacceptable impacts cannot be approved if they do not meet specific national interest tests. Greater clarity for proponents and decision-makers will be achieved through these reforms. That's exactly what we're doing with all of these changes.

Now the challenge turns to for the Liberals, Nationals and Greens political party to support these bills. Australians are sick of the Liberals and Nationals climate change denialism; we've seen it over and over for so many years. And they're sick of the Greens enabling this by consistently teaming up with them to block vital reforms. I call on them to support these important measures.

In closing, I'd really like to thank the many environmental activists throughout the nation who have championed these reforms. Locally, I'd like to acknowledge the North Coast Labor Environment Action Group, LEAN, for their commitment and strong advocacy. We are delivering. Australians voted for an Albanese Labor government committed to protecting our natural environment, and we are absolutely committed to delivering on this commitment in this parliament.

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