Nicolette Boele (Bradfield, Independent) | Link to this | Hansard source

For the last 25 years, even though we've had national laws to protect the places we love, our environment has continued to deteriorate. Experts say that's because our key environmental law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, is all about following processes and not about achieving outcomes. Last year, the government passed major reforms to try and fix this problem. The linchpin of the new law is a set of rules called the national environmental standards.

These standards are supposed to set clear, enforceable limits on decision-making to prevent environmental harm and improve outcomes for our threatened species, our forests, our rivers, our wetlands and our oceans, so it's disappointing that the draft standards do not set clear outcomes for the environment. They're full of vague, non-binding language and they're all about process. To be clear, there are some good things in the draft standards, such as requirements to have community engagement plans and strengthened water protections. But when it comes to preventing the most important things, like habitat destruction and degradation, they fall short.

What we need are science based limits on these drivers of extinction, because koalas don't care whether companies and bureaucrats follow the right processes; they care about whether their trees are cut down. Environmental laws should do what they say on the tin: protect the environment. I call on the government to strengthen the standards before tabling them in parliament.