Terri Butler (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) welcomes the release of the Auditor-General's report, Referrals, Assessments and Approvals of Controlled Actions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act);

(2) notes that Australia is currently experiencing an environmental crisis and jobs crisis, and the Auditor-General's report confirms the Government has failed on both counts;

(3) further notes the damning findings from the Auditor-General including that:

(a) there has been a 510 per cent increase in the average delays for approval decisions since the Liberals and Nationals were elected (between 2014-15 and 2018-19);

(b) between 2014-15 and 2018-19, delays to environmental approvals for jobs and investment from major projects exploded from 19 days on average to 116 days;

(c) 79 per cent of approvals assessed were non-compliant or contained errors;

(d) in 2018-19, 95 per cent of key decisions (referral, assessment method, approval), were made outside the statutory time frames, with just 5 per cent of decisions being made on time;

(e) conflicts of interest are not managed;

(f) reporting arrangements are not consistent with the EPBC Act; and

(g) projects or environmental outcomes are not being monitored;

(4) acknowledges the extraordinary nature of these findings, which make up one of the most damning reports published by the Auditor-General to date;

(5) notes that:

(a) the report reveals the extent to which Government cuts to the environment department, which are estimated to be 40 per cent since 2013, has smashed the department's capacity to make good, timely decisions to create jobs and protect the environment; and

(b) Government cuts and mismanagement (Liberal party blue-tape) is at the heart of job and investment delays, poor quality decisions and legal challenges; and

(6) calls on the Government to:

(a) take responsibility for their abject failure on the environment and jobs; and

(b) stop tying up projects and strangling the environment with Liberal party blue tape which is delaying jobs and investment, putting a handbrake on our economy, failing to protect iconic Australian species like the koala and allowing the state of our natural environment to rapidly decline.

I regret to say that Australia is in the middle of a jobs crisis and an environmental crisis, and the Morrison government is failing on both counts. Never has that been made more starkly clear than in the most recent Auditor-General's office report, Referrals, assessment and approvals of controlled actions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This is perhaps the most damning Auditor-General report that anyone in this place has seen for some time. The language is uncharacteristically blunt, and it's no wonder, when you look at some of the outcomes that the Auditor-General found in relation to this government's administration of decision-making under the EPBC Act. Why is that import? It's important for a few reasons.

It's important because the fact is Australia is in the middle of an extinction crisis. Environmental protection has been woeful under this government. This government has taken the axe to the environment department since the day it was elected. When this government was first elected, it cut hundreds of jobs out of the environment department, and we're seeing the consequence of that now, years later. It's also important because jobs and investment depend on well-made, timely decisions under the EPBC Act. This is the legislation under which projects are approved. It's very important that the decisions be made on time, where there's no reason for delay, and well. Decisions need to be of a high quality, and they need to be litigation-proof, having been made well and properly in the first place. But this government's cuts have been woeful, and they have led to absolute tragedies in relation to decision-making under this legislation.

The Auditor-General found that there had been a massive blowout in delays in decision-making. If you look at it, there's actually been a 510 per cent increase in the average delays for approval decisions since the Liberals and Nationals were elected. Between financial year 2014-15 and 2018-19, delays to environmental approvals for jobs and investment for major projects exploded, from 19-day delays to on average 116 days. Really concerningly, in financial year 2018-19, 95 per cent of key decisions were being made outside of statutory time frames. Every single one of these delays, where it's not necessary—where it's being done because of funding cuts and workloads, not because of legitimate reasons—means delays for jobs and delays for investment. That's why it's really important that the government face up to the damage it has done to our economy through its attacks on the environment department as well as the damage it has wrought on our environment, our species and our habitats.

The other thing, as I mentioned, that has been absolutely terrible under this government is the quality of decision-making. If you have poor-quality decision-making, not only do you expose these decision to litigation, which means more delay, but you also expose the decisions to just being wrong. This is crucial legislation. The future of our nation's environment and species depends on decisions being made correctly. This government, in allowing its decisions to be made poorly, is running decision-making into the ground. For example, the Auditor-General said that 79 per cent of the decisions that it considered were either affected by error or non-compliant. This is a significant problem. What's happened here is that the government, after being elected, has come in with an ideological agenda, an anti-environment agenda, and it hasn't given any thought to how that agenda might affect decision-making, the approval of major projects and the certainty for business, industry, investment and jobs. So they've taken the axe to the department. The government has cut an estimated 40 per cent of environment department funding since being elected—40 per cent. Imagine the damage that that causes. In fact, you don't have to imagine it, because the Auditor-General has published this quite scathing and blunt report.

The other thing I want to mention that this report made really clear is a governance failure. This report said, 'Conflicts of interest are not managed.' Remember this is a department that considers tens of billions of dollars of projects. Clearly the risk of conflicts needs to be managed, but this government has failed to make sure that people can have trust and confidence in the environment department by making sure that conflicts of interest are properly managed, and that is an absolute disgrace.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Peta Murphy (Dunkley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. As we are looking to come out of the global health crisis of the pandemic and the recession that Australia is sadly in at the moment, we have an opportunity to build a better future. We have an opportunity to take stock and say: 'What sort of a country do we want to live in? What sort of a contribution do we want to make to the world?' It is absolutely clear to me, on behalf of the constituents of Dunkley, and it is absolutely clear to those members of parliament on my side of the chamber that one of the priorities for Australians is to have a country with a beautiful environment, with our iconic natural environment that is protected, and to be, as we have been under past federal governments, a leader around the world in the protection of native species, native plants and iconic environmental places. Sadly, it appears that we currently have a federal government who don't want to do that. They don't want to look forward to a great future with good jobs, good economic growth and a protected environment; they want to look back. We've heard in the last few days that the Morrison government wants to snap back to 2014, to the failed policies of Tony Abbott, when it comes to the environment.

The Samuel review of the EPBC Act is one of the most significant opportunities for reform in the past 20 years. When we face a sad history of extinction of our native animals in Australia, when we are looking at the devastation of the Great Barrier Reef, when we have a government that has not only failed to act on climate change but dismantled previous attempts by Labor governments for Australia to be a leader on climate change, it is deeply and devastatingly disappointing that we also have a government that is failing to take the opportunity for review and substantial reform that the Samuel review gives us. Many of us have spoken in this chamber before about our commitment to a greater future, a commitment to an environment that is protected, an economy that grows and jobs that are based on renewable energy and policies that are good for the environment. It's not just a trite saying that, if you don't have an environment, you don't have an economy—it's true. What is also true but seems to be failed to be recognised by those on the other side of the chamber is that protecting our environment can also be a driver of economic growth and a driver of jobs.

We hear a lot, as the review into the EPBC Act has gone on and the minister has rolled out responses, about getting rid of green tape, about how important it is to have infrastructure and development being able to progress without all of this green tape. But, when you peel away the rhetoric of green tape, what you actually find is that, under this federal government, the delays have been caused by blue tape. They've been caused by massive cuts to the department of the environment. They've been caused by policies and attitudes of this government which have slowed down proper assessments of projects from an environmental perspective. They have not been caused by so-called green tape.

The World Wide Fund for Nature has said that we lost three billion animals in the recent bushfires and that 49 threatened species had 80 per cent of their habitat burnt in the bushfires. For many of us around Australia, the pictures of koalas screaming in pain from their burns and Australians risking their own skin and lives to save those koalas are seared into our understanding of why we need to protect our environment. We know that climate change increases the risk and the likelihood of catastrophic events like bushfires. There are many people in the community who perhaps before didn't have such a razor-sharp interest in environmental laws, but they do now because they've seen about the risk that's posed— (Time expired)

Matt Keogh (Burt, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Industry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Morrison government is failing Australia and Australians. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the economic recession it caused was thrust upon us, the Morrison government was stifling the opportunity for major resources and infrastructure projects around Australia to proceed. This has become such a profound issue that even the WA Minister for Transport called out the government for being the key hold-up for major projects across Perth.

Principally, the issue is this: the Morrison government has cut funding to the department of environment so much that this department, which is responsible for federal environmental assessments for projects under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, is fundamentally failing to do its job. This isn't just leaving our environment unprotected, which it is, but is holding up job-creating projects. If there was ever a time that Australia needed to be in a position to get moving—that we needed shovel-ready projects ready; that we needed to make sure that regulatory requirements were met speedily but properly so that job-creating projects could proceed as soon as possible—it is now. Yet the Morrison government's record in this space is the opposite. As the motion before us outlines, under the Morrison government, approval delays have blown out by 510 per cent—from 16 days to nearly four months on average—essentially caused by sustained cuts to the environment department. These are cuts of nearly 40 per cent since 2013.

In 2018-19, 95 per cent of key decisions on major projects were made late and 79 per cent of decisions were affected by error or were non-compliant. Instead of aiding and abetting Clive Palmer's mad plan to break WA's protective borders, the Prime Minister should be working to secure better laws for jobs, investment and environmental protection. Since the end of last year, the WA government has been calling on the Commonwealth to enter into a bilateral agreement for environmental approvals, which would avoid the delays being caused at the federal level. Of course, such bilateral agreements should be about best practice environmental protection and not finding any lowest common denominator.

In October last year, the Morrison government commissioned a review into environmental laws, appointing Graeme Samuel to head that review. Upon the completion of that inquiry, Mr Samuel said our country needs better environment laws underpinned by national environment standards, together with an enforcement body, as well as supporting bilateral agreements with the states, such as what has been requested by Western Australia. However, it seems this Liberal Party are ignoring the recommendations of their own inquiry. The Liberal government has now introduced an environment bill which is merely a rehash of Tony Abbott's failed 2014 approach.

The Liberal government claims that these proposed amendments will tidy up the existing EPBC Act bilateral provisions. However, its legislation goes somewhat further than that. In addition, despite the recommendation of the Samuel review, the government is trying to put through legislation now that does not include any national environmental standards. Trying to push through incomplete legislation doesn't build support for reform; it is playing silly political games that will not only hurt WA jobs but also reduce investment certainty. This is the most significant opportunity for environmental reform in the last 20 years. The government must get it right. But, so far, all we're seeing is Abbott 2.0.

Environmental protection and supporting major projects are not mutually exclusive. In fact, good environmental laws should secure both. Rather than taking the axe to laws designed to protect our environment and, importantly, laws that preserve Australia as a world-leading tourism destination, the federal government should improve its project assessment funding and performance. It should be working towards the full suite of laws that are required. A piecemeal approach just won't cut it.

Australia has a job crisis and an environmental crisis, and the Morrison government is failing on both counts. This government now needs to take responsibility for its abject failure on environment and jobs and to stop tying up projects and strangling the environment with Liberal Party blue tape, which is delaying jobs and investment, putting a handbrake on our economy, failing to protect iconic Australian species and allowing the state of our natural environment to rapidly decline. We need to make sure both job opportunities and the environment will be bettered by this legislation, not compromised. If there was ever a time that we needed to get these laws right, it is now, when we need to bring forward projects to support our economy.

Ged Kearney (Cooper, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Skills) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the motion moved by my colleague the member for Griffith, and I do so acknowledging that I am on the land of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nations. I would like to congratulate the member for holding this government to account so well. She has summed up their disregard for the protection of our environment perfectly.

But, if I'm being honest, it isn't all that hard for us on this side of the House to list the failures of this Liberal government when it comes to the protection of our environment. The Auditor-General has done that for us. Their report tells the story of a government whose cuts and neglect have caught up to them. It's estimated that they have cut funding to the environment department by 40 per cent. It's no wonder, then, that decisions under the EPBC Act are so chronically delayed or that 79 per cent of the approvals that the Auditor-General assessed were noncompliant or contained errors. This is blatant mismanagement at a time when the Samuel review's interim record is telling us environmental protection has experienced a steady decline over the past 20 years, leaving a trail of destruction. This is a federal government that, under this Prime Minister, takes no responsibility for its actions and its appalling outcomes. We see time and time again that they engage in blame shifting and responsibility dodging. Just look at the tragedy that is aged care.

I am proud to stand here as the member for Cooper. My community know we are facing a climate emergency. They know we are facing extinction crises. They know that the Morrison government is failing when it comes to protecting natural resources, our wildlife, our waterways, our forests and our future. There are those who shrug off calls for environmental protection as cries of the privileged or dismiss the issues as elitist. They tell us that we cannot have action on climate change or action to protect our environment whilst creating jobs and supporting livelihoods. This is rubbish. In my electorate of Cooper I have people from all walks of life, from factory workers, tradies and coffee roasters in Reservoir to retail workers and university protesters in Northcote, all telling me the same thing: we are living in the time of a climate crisis. We want action. We need action. It is not a privileged viewpoint to say that we need a strong regulator with adequate resources to do their job. It's not a privileged viewpoint to say degradation of the environment is worth properly monitoring and halting. It is not a privileged viewpoint to want this Liberal government to do its job, because, in fact, we see by these latest reports that it is doing the opposite of protecting our beautiful natural heritage: it is wilfully destroying it.

Each week I get hundreds of emails, letters and phone calls from constituents right across my electorate, and indeed the country, across industries and across all political parties who can see the realities of climate change and environmental neglect by this Liberal government. They are exhausted by what they're seeing and the effort to make change. But they won't give up and neither will I. We can see the increasing intensity of bushfires and the health impacts of the climate emergency. We're horrified by coral bleaching and the potential for the extinction of koalas in the wild—indeed, the extinction of the natural habitats of many of our native species.

We need a government that is prepared to make Australia a global leader in climate action, a country which preserves and protects its beautiful environmental assets and benefits from the thousands of jobs real action on these issues would create. Only people with their heads in the sand—fast-disappearing sand dunes in some cases—cannot see the abundance of potential in a fast-tracked sustainable future with jobs, jobs, jobs in industries of the future, with our natural environs intact. This is not a pipedream. Other countries are beating us to it. Other countries with the guts and foresight are going to reap the benefits of the global shift to renewables. We will be left behind if this government has its way. For this shift to happen, the Liberal government will need to start listening to the experts and the Australian people, whether they be in inner-city electorates or in regional and rural communities, who are demanding change.

But, sadly, it's becoming clearer and clearer that the government simply aren't up to the task. They're more interested in playing the politics of division than protecting our environment and creating jobs. The Leader of the Opposition and our side have offered to work collaboratively. It's time for the Prime Minister to step up; protect our environment, which is being destroyed; create the jobs of the future; and ensure a decent future for all Australians. It's not too much to ask them to do their job.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Edward O Wilson the biologist once talked about the idea of biophilia: the notion that humans have an innate desire to connect with nature and other forms of life. Biophilia is being understood now in terms of the importance of mental health and spending time in the environment. I started today in the Canberra bush doing hill sprints on one of the hills near my house. Part of the joy of that is not just the physical exercise; it's the connection with the country around you—spending time with the kangaroos, the kookaburras and the galahs amidst the eucalyptus. So many Australians see the natural environment as being critical to who we are, and so many international visitors come to Australia to see our natural environment. They want to see Uluru. They want to the Great Barrier Reef. The environment is fundamental to who we are and who we stand for in the world. Yet, under the coalition, we have seen the greatest travesty in their inability to deal with unchecked climate change.

This coalition's approach to climate change has been that of the ostrich with its head in the sand: unable to recognise the looming environmental crisis that is being caused, unable to bring down Australia's emissions in line with what our international obligations demand and unable to recognise that dealing with climate change in a smooth transition is ultimately not only more effective but also the cheaper solution. Unchecked climate change challenges almost every aspect of Australian life. There is no continent worse affected by unchecked climate change than Australia. The impact on bushfires has already been felt. We've seen over a billion animals killed during the recent bushfires and more than 12 million hectares of land burnt. There are devastating impacts of sea level rise on coastal communities, and other significant impacts throughout the nation of unchecked climate change.

But we also have a coalition that is failing to do the right job when it comes to national environmental standards. The Samuel report, engaging with groups across the political spectrum, has recommended new, legally enforceable national environmental standards. It's recommended Australia's Indigenous cultural heritage laws be reviewed and better engagement with Indigenous Australians. As Bruce Pascoe has outlined in his book Dark Emu, Indigenous Australians have a great deal to teach non-Indigenous Australians about effective land management. It calls for better information, restoration of the environment, and the creation of an independent compliance and enforcement regulator—a so-called federal EPA.

The anti-science approach of the coalition can be seen, as the member for Griffith has so ably highlighted in this excellent motion, through the mismanagement of federal environmental decisions. Since 2014-15, we have seen a huge blowout in approval times, from 19 days to 116 days. Shockingly, 95 per cent of Morrison government decisions on major projects were late in 2018-19, and 79 per cent of approval decisions contained errors or didn't comply with the law. In what class would you think that it was alright to hand in your homework late 95 per cent of the time and wrong 79 per cent of the time? This government gets a failing grade when it comes to managing the environment. Another illustration of that is the lack of coalition speakers on this motion—not a single coalition speaker stepping up to defend the government. The member for Kennedy is prattling on from the backbenches, but not even he is going to stand up and defend the government on this.

Labor has a strong environmental legacy, through defending Kakadu and the Franklin River and through creating the world's largest network of marine parks. I've been proud to work with the Labor Environment Action Network—Louise Crawford, Felicity Wade, Rod Holesgrove, Ben Stern, Janaline Oh and others—because they recognise the great benefit to Australia of a Labor Party that is engaged and focused on issues of environmental conservation.

This isn't a choice between the environment and the economy. Indeed, in the case of tourism, the two go together beautifully. We need a government which is willing to do more on environmental approvals. We need a government that will finally take climate change seriously.

James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Labor is completely ignoring the fact that the Morrison government has busted congestion in environmental assessments, with 98 per cent of key decisions made on time last quarter. We are implementing the national cabinet decision, agreed with every state and territory, to reduce duplication and move towards single-touch environmental approvals. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Streamlining Environmental Approvals) Bill 2020 introduced last week is the first step towards a single-touch model. The streamlining environmental approvals bill and single-touch approvals will reduce regulatory burden, accelerate job-creating projects, promote economic activity and create certainty around environmental protections. By reducing duplication, project proponents could save more than $400 million each year in regulatory costs.

These reforms are more important than ever to support our economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. But, more than that, they will help to address the uncertainty created by our current system of environmental regulation. Everyone agrees our environmental laws are in desperate need of reform, and everyone acknowledges the current approvals system leads to duplication and inefficiency due to unnecessary interactions between Commonwealth, state and territory environmental laws. This bill is the first tranche of EPBC Act reforms linked to Professor Samuel's independent statutory review of the act.

Unlike Labor, which sat on its hands, ignoring the need for legislative change identified in the 71 recommendations of the Hawke review of the act a decade ago, we are acting to implement sensible reform. We have begun the process of entering into bilateral approval agreements with the states and territories, beginning with Western Australia. There will be more reforms in the months ahead. We are committed to change that will deliver the best outcomes for the environment and for everyday Australians. The Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment has agreed to implement all eight ANAO recommendations and has already made changes to improve its administration of the EPBC Act. Instead of helping to deliver much-needed reform that has been agreed by national cabinet, Labor is seeking to distract from the environmental debate raging in its divided party room.

On top of the Morrison government's $25 million investment to bust congestion in environmental approvals, we have announced a priority list of 15 major projects to be fast-tracked for approval, involving joint assessment teams with the states to accelerate Commonwealth assessment and approval times. These projects include road infrastructure in Western Australia; Perth airport upgrades in Western Australia; the M12 Motorway link to the Western Sydney international airport in New South Wales; the Sydney Metro rail link to the Western Sydney international airport; the inland freight line from Melbourne to Brisbane; the Coffs Harbour bypass; the emergency town water projects in New South Wales; the Snowy 2.0 pumped hydro expansion; the Narrabri gas project; Woodside's Burrup Hub project in Western Australia; Rio Tinto's iron ore projects in Western Australia; Metronet rail projects in Western Australia; in my home state of South Australia, BHP's Olympic Dam extension; the EnergyConnect high-voltage electricity transmission connection between my home state and New South Wales; and the Marinus Link electricity connection between Tasmania and Victoria. These projects are worth more than $72 billion and are expected to support over 66,000 jobs—important projects aimed at fast-tracking Australia's economic recovery post COVID. By reducing assessment and approval time frames, these major projects will be shovel-ready earlier, helping to create thousands of new jobs and supporting the economy through the COVID-19 crisis.

The Prime Minister has noted that the Commonwealth's ability alone to achieve faster approvals only goes so far and we need to work in partnership with the states. A good example of this is Snowy Hydro 2.0, which underwent a rigorous assessment. By working closely with the New South Wales government a decision was made ahead of statutory timeframes. Partnering with the states and territories is also the approach the Morrison government is taking to much-needed reforms to the EPBC Act. Following the release of the interim review of the EPBC Act by Professor Samuel at the national cabinet meeting of 24 July, all states and territories indicated support for the move to single-touch approvals. We are already talking with the states about entering agreements to progress single-touch approvals, with state and territory processes to be accredited against the standards. We have also introduced a bill to the parliament to amend the EPBC Act to ensure single-touch approvals are efficient and robust.

This bill makes important changes, such as making it clear you don't also need to refer a project to the Commonwealth, if it is going through a state single-touch approval process and providing flexibility so that the state can make minor changes— (Time expired)

Matt Thistlethwaite (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Great Barrier Reef is under unprecedented threat. Australia has the highest loss of mammal species of any nation in the world. The Tasmanian devil is threatened. Our koala populations are in decline. More and more of our coastline is subject to erosion. The Murray-Darling River system is in crisis and many of the towns, particularly in the southern states, are in decline. Levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere continue to rise. In the local community that I represent, Yarra Bay Beach in Botany Bay is under threat and the marine habitat is under threat from a proposal by the New South Wales government and cruise ship operators. Under the Morrison Liberal government, the polluters are in charge and the environment is in decline. It is our kids who will pay the cost.

In June of this year the government released the independent review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act conducted by Professor Graeme Samuel. It paints a sorry picture of the state of environmental conservation in Australia. In the opening paragraphs, it says:

Australia's natural environment and iconic places are in an overall state of decline and are under increasing threat.

It goes on to say:

The impact of climate change on the environment is building, and will exacerbate pressures, contributing to further decline.

And:

The EPBC Act is ineffective. It does not enable the Commonwealth to effectively protect environmental matters that are important for the nation. It is not fit to address current or future environmental challenges.

This comes on the back of a damning Auditor-General's report into referrals under the EPBC Act, and that's the subject of this motion. Under that Auditor-General's report, we've seen a 510 per cent increase in the average delays for approval decisions since this Liberal and National government was elected. A 79 per cent increase of approvals assessed were noncompliant or contained errors. We've seen conflicts of interest that aren't managed. Reporting arrangements are not consistent with the EPBC Act, and projects or environmental outcomes are not being monitored.

The report reveals the extent to which this government's cuts to the environment department, which are estimated to have been 40 per cent since 2013, have smashed the department's capacity to make good, timely decisions that create jobs and protect our national environment. We are seeing this locally in the community that I represent. Yarra Bay, the last remaining tract of original beach that is left on the northern side of Botany Bay is now under threat from a proposal from the cruise industry and the New South Wales government to build a cruise terminal at Yarra Bay. To do so they would need to dredge the day, risking a seagrass sanctuary that's just beginning to take off again in Botany Bay. The weedy sea dragon and pygmy pipehorse, which are threatened species in that area, would again be at risk from this proposal. There is significant Aboriginal cultural heritage. It's an important traditional fishing site. Yet these issues are considered last by the New South Wales Liberal government and by the Commonwealth Liberal government. Under these governments, the environment comes last. Aboriginal heritage comes last. They're putting the business case first. They're putting the interests of polluters first. As Professor Samuel said, getting the views of First Australians is tokenism and stopping species decline is tokenism.

Thankfully, the Yarra Bay proposal is on hold due to COVID-19. But we anticipate that it will come back under this Liberal government because the polluters are in charge. The government now wants to introduce a new bill, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Streamlining Environmental Approvals) Bill, which ignores some of the recommendations of the Samuel report, particularly in relation to national environmental standards. This bill would devolve environmental assessments and approvals to the states and territories. Devolve Commonwealth responsibilities to the Australian people, particularly our kids, to conserve the environment and put in place a framework that protects our environment.

Trent Zimmerman (North Sydney, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member's time has expired. There being no further speakers, the debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.