Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

Pursuant to contingent notice standing in the name of the Assistant Minister for Education, Senator Chisholm, I move:

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent a minister moving, in committee of the whole, amendments to the bill which amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity ConservationAct 1999 to expand the circumstances in which certain petroleum mining developments must be assessed and approved by the minister administering that Act.

Colleagues, for the avoidance of doubt, since the government has circulated amendments to the EPBC Act and since the EPBC Act is not otherwise amended by the Nature Repair Market (Consequential Amendments) Bill, the government is taking this step to enable the amendments to the Nature Repair Market Bill to be moved. It's a necessary procedural step. It enables the Senate to deliver important and commonsense environmental reform.

This is an important reform. Our government is seeking to establish the world's first national nature repair market, and this market will make it easier for businesses, philanthropists and others to invest in projects that restore and repair nature across Australia without greenwashing. Investment in the nature repair market means landholders, including farmers and First Nations groups, will get paid to improve the environment on their properties. For example, this may involve repairing damaged riverbeds, replanting critical habitat of threatened species or removing invasive species, such as feral cats and weeds. Tonight our government is also seeking to update the water trigger so that all new unconventional gas projects will be assessed for their impact on water resources. Before the election, Labor promised to do this, and we are delivering. We set this out in the Nature Positive Plan, which was released at the end of last year, after consulting with APPEA and the gas industry.

These are reforms which have been proposed by at least three reports: the Northern Territory government's Pepper scientific inquiry, the 2018 Senate inquiry into water use by the extractive industries and the 2021 interim report of the Senate inquiry into oil and gas exploration and production in the Beetaloo basin. All of these inquiries recommended that the EPBC water trigger be expanded to cover all forms of unconventional gas. It's a commonsense change, colleagues, providing business with certainty and the community with confidence that water resources and our environment are properly regulated and protected. The update will expand the water trigger which already applies to coal seam gas to include other types of unconventional gas developments, such as shale gas. Most new gas projects will be unaffected by the change, as coal seam gas production is already covered by the existing water trigger and the changes do not apply to conventional gas production. Existing gas projects that are in production and have already been approved are unaffected by this update. Projects regulated by the National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority, NOPSEMA, will also be unaffected by this update. This will provide certainty for business and ensure continuity of gas supply.

We are grateful for the support of members of the crossbench to pursue these two important government initiatives together. We have agreed to support a number of amendments proposed by the Greens—namely, amendments to prevent biodiversity certificates from being used as environmental offsets and to remove references to offsets from the bill, and an amendment to change the name of the bill. The government has had many conversations with the crossbench about delivering our commitments, and that includes our nature repair market and expanding the water trigger. We are working with all members of the crossbench on this legislation. This is an important reform, colleagues. These are important initiatives, and I commend them to the chamber.