Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

You are looking for something, I know, Senator Faulkner. The ALP is desperate to find something, and they have latched on to the orange-bellied parrot, hoping that the rest of us will not take note of the fact that their record in environmental management was so absolutely dismal and amounted to nothing much at all to place on the record.

First of all, the Howard government introduced the environment and biodiversity act, which, for the first time, gave the federal government a right to intervene in environmental issues. That has meant that it is now much easier for these big projects to be given an environmental assessment, which means that a broad range of environmental issues can be dealt with by the federal government before they get towards their conclusions. Previously, in many cases, the federal government could only be involved if the Foreign Investment Review Board provisions were invoked.

The environment and biodiversity act was the first great achievement of the Howard government in the environment, but of course there have been many more. In particular, we turn to the Natural Heritage Trust, which, Mr Deputy President, you would know about because you are a man of great intelligence and have a great feeling for what the government has done in Queensland with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The Natural Heritage Trust committed $3 billion to the largest and most successful environmental restoration program in Australian history. The trust involves national, regional and local governments, and empowers community organisations in some 56 regions across the country to identify and solve local environment problems.