Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Human Services) Share this | Hansard source

Labor does not support these amendments to schedule 5 of the omnibus repeal bill. Schedule 5 of the bill removes regulatory duplication in environmental protection. Labor believes that, where there are opportunities to streamline environmental assessment processes without weakening protections, those opportunities should be taken, and that removing duplication and superseded legislation makes sense.

I think Senator Collins went through our position in some detail earlier so I will not repeat that. I just want to indicate, as a former chair for some years of the environment and communications committee, that I think the big challenge for protection of the environment is not removing unnecessary duplication but protecting the environment and simply delegating approval of power to the states. I think that has been clear. There have been many submissions to the environment committee over a long period of time about handing powers of approval over to the states. That is where the danger lies, not in the repeal of a duplicative and superseded legislation.

Certainly Labor is of the view that that is a key issue that has to be addressed. Another of the key issues is—in terms of the environment—not offering to do deals with the government on so-called Direct Action policy. I think the big problems are in two areas: the Direct Action policy and handing power to the states.

In terms of unnecessary duplication: where it is not an environmental problem, we support it. We certainly do not support handing environmental powers to the states, given the record of the states over a long period of time; and we certainly will not be working with the government to hand over taxpayers' money to big polluters for the privilege of polluting. Our position is clear on this. We will not be supporting these amendments for the reasons that Senator Collins has outlined and the reasons that I have just amplified.