Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

that there is a technical divorce apparently occurring—thank you, Senator Williams. But what we see here is that even as the marriage was on the rocks, even as it was heading towards the end of its days, the government was capitulating to the demands of the Greens, despite the government's solemn public promises to the electorate and in particular to the business community to try to get greater efficiencies in place.

So what is the evidence? Amongst the evidence cited is the Deloitte Access Economics report of April 2011, a report provided—albeit late, but nonetheless provided—to the Senate inquiry into this bill. That report found:

There would be benefits to project proponents, Australian, state and territory governments and the economy from reducing delays in the assessment process …

The Deloitte report also found that the estimated benefit from reduced delays was $135.1 million in 2012-13, increasing to $288.4 million in 2020-21. In net present value terms, this represents a total gain to society of $1.19 billion. I repeat: a $1.19 billion potential total gain to society.

There is very clearly potential to improve the efficiency in the operation of the EPBC Act. It is very clear that that can be improved by making assessment processes better, but also by making approvals processes better, and that government should have in its armoury the flexibility to achieve and pursue both of those outcomes. As the Business Council of Australia said in its submission to the Senate inquiry:

The community must be assured that under the approvals system, Australia's unique environment and heritage values will be maintained or enhanced. This can and should be achieved without compromising the competitiveness of project proponents.

Australia's planning and environmental laws, at all levels of government, must facilitate the efficient approval of major capital projects upon which Australia's economic wellbeing is increasingly dependent.

The Australian economy is more reliant on the successful delivery of major capital projects than ever before. Business Council of Australia research indicates that by 2013, expenditure on capital investment is likely to grow to 30 per cent of GDP. A large part of all Australian economic activity will therefore be dependent on the success of major capital projects. Given Australia's increased reliance on major capital projects, it is imperative that all governments configure their environmental approvals processes to ensure decisions are predictable and timely.

It is all we are looking for here: efficient, predictable, timely approvals processes. Instead, we now get from both the government and the Greens a whole lot of furphies run up. We get a tax on the states over their so-called austerity measures—which actually, of course, are just measures to try to balance their budgets, something the Labor Party does not know terribly much about—and it is claimed that this means the states could not possibly be adequate to deal with any increased responsibility or shared responsibility through the use of approvals bilaterals. Well, that is why you put standards in place. That is why the Hawke review recommended that you put standards in place: to make sure that the states have to adhere to those standards, or the bilaterals simply do not take effect. We hear the furphies suggested: what about the states sitting in judgement on their own projects? Nobody is suggesting that they do that. We hear the suggestion made: will the states have too much to gain from economic activity—as if the Commonwealth does not have anything to gain from economic activity! When projects are approved, the Commonwealth benefits from the company tax take and it benefits from the increased income tax take. The Commonwealth has very direct benefit from project approval and economic activity. So all manner of furphies are flown here. In the end, the coalition believes this bill is unnecessary. These provisions that have been in the act since 1999 should be maintained and, indeed, we are committed to using them sensibly, cautiously, but proactively, to try to get the best environmental and economic outcomes for Australia should we be elected later this year.