Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

This bill, the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation Bill 2023, provides an opportunity for Australia to build a new economic future. However, what that future looks like will be up to the government. It could be a future with a thriving economy, where we invest in renewable energy technology, the circular economy and new sustainable, innovative products, or it could be a future relying on more of the same under a different name—financing industries that destroy our environment, our climate and our home; focusing on defence technologies or industries that feed into giant fossil fuel projects; or allowing the destruction of country.

I commend the Greens for negotiating the prohibition of direct investment by the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation into coal and natural gas projects, as well as native forest logging. But there is more to this. There are many industries that are required for these projects to go ahead; they produce the equipment for gas drilling and the machinery needed for coalmining or for logging our forests. Today I will be moving amendments to prohibit the corporation from investing in these industries as well. I'll also be moving an amendment to prohibit investments in nuclear technologies, at a time when nuclear war has become more threatening than it has been over the last 30 years and at a time when we know not only the dangers of nuclear energy production and dealing with radioactive waste but also the economic rabbit hole that nuclear power constitutes. It only makes sense to exclude this thinking, which is from the past, from our planning for the future. For those of you worried about nuclear medicines, we can and will continue to produce nuclear medicines, but this can be done safely, through the use of particle accelerators rather than nuclear reactors, posing much less risk to our communities and environment.

I will also move an amendment requiring any extractive industry project or major development that is seeking funding through the corporation to demonstrate that they have thoroughly engaged with the traditional owners of the land of the proposed project, that they have provided information to traditional owners in accessible formats and properly consulted about what they are proposing to do, and, last but not least, that they have actually obtained consent for the project. Our economy of the future should not be built against the wishes and concerns of First Nations people. There are many projects that our people would like to, and will, support. Your votes on these investment related amendments will be a sign of which future you want to see for this country.

The second reading amendment in my name further stresses the importance of the National Reconstruction Fund Corporation taking into account free, prior and informed consent. Australia has a poor record of ensuring First Nations people are being heard and are getting a say in what happens on their country. This would be an encouraging step towards ensuring we actually comply with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which we endorsed 14 years ago but have done almost nothing to actually implement. This commitment could easily be incorporated into the investment mandate, which will be prepared shortly, and could be part of the investment application process. I therefore foreshadow that I will later move the second reading amendment in my name on sheet 1916, seeking the government's commitment to the corporation ensuring that the principle of free, prior, and informed consent is adhered to by those receiving funding for major projects with environmental impact.