Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move Greens amendments (5) and (12) on sheet 5361:

(5)    Clause 21, page 36 (lines 23 to 28), omit subclause (1), substitute:

        (1)    The Basin Plan (including any environmental watering plan or water quality and salinity management plan included in the Basin Plan) must be prepared so as to provide for giving effect (to the extent to which they are relevant to the use and management of the Basin water resources) to:

             (a)    relevant international agreements;

             (b)    the Australian Ramsar management principles as prescribed by section 335 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999; and

             (c)    plans and strategies developed for implementing commitments under relevant Agreements in accordance with the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 including:

                   (i)    any management plans for a Ramsar wetland under section 328 or section 333 of that Act;

                  (ii)    any recovery plan or threat abatement plan prepared by the Commonwealth under Chapter 5 of that Act or any recovery plan or threat abatement plan developed by a State or Territory;

                 (iii)    the China Australia and Japan Migratory Birds agreements and any wildlife conservation plans under section 285 of that Act.

(12)  Clause 55, page 71 (after line 16), at the end of the clause, add:

        (4)    A water resource plan must be prepared to give effect (to the extent to which they are relevant to the use and management of the Basin water resources) to:

             (a)    relevant international agreements;

             (b)    the Australian Ramsar management principles as prescribed by section 335 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999; and

             (c)    plans and strategies developed for implementing commitments under relevant Agreements in accordance with the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 including:

                   (i)    any management plans for a Ramsar wetland under section 328 or section 333 of that Act;

                  (ii)    any recovery plan or threat abatement plan prepared by the Commonwealth under Chapter 5 of that Act or any recovery plan or threat abatement plan developed by a State or Territory;

                 (iii)    the China Australia and Japan Migratory Birds agreements and any wildlife conservation plans under section 285 of that Act.

These amendments relate to integration with the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. The amendments are to ensure that the basin plan and the water resources plan are consistent with, and give effect to, not only relevant international agreements but also plans and strategies developed for implementing these commitments under the EPBC Act.

At the moment the bills are being consistent with, for example, Ramsar, the migratory bird conventions and the biodiversity convention. What we seek to do with these amendments is to ensure that the plans and the strategies that are developed to implement these are given effect under this legislation. It is quite an extensive amendment, which talks about how those plans should be implemented through amendments and to give effect to those under the EPBC Act. The Environmental Defenders Office, which made a submission to the inquiry, also talked about this quite substantially. In its submission it talked about how to improve the integration with the EPBC Act. It said:

The Bill could be improved by better coordination and integration with the implementation of international agreements under the ... the EPBC ... without limiting the Bills general scheme of giving effect to relevant international agreements.

What we are seeking to do here is to ensure that these international conventions are implemented, and that they are implemented through the plans and strategies—the ‘doing’ side of things. That is what we are trying to do here: ensure that the government is implementing the conventions through their strategies and plans. I know that the department is undertaking a review of Ramsar site management—I am hoping it is around Australia—because we know that the states are not implementing the plans. That comes back to the Commonwealth, because the Commonwealth is the signatory to these international conventions. These amendments seek to give effect to those plans and strategies so that we are actually doing what we say we are doing. This takes it one step further than just not being consistent with the conventions but in effect is implementing these conventions.