Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make my contribution to the debate. I just want to make it clear to the Senate that I was on the committee that looked into the Barossa gas proposal. It was a couple of years ago, in a previous parliament and that sort of stuff, but I just wanted to put that on the record. I also want to say, as a proud Western Australian, that gas and mining are essential to our economy and to the Australian economy. I do want to say very clearly on the record, before I go to the body of the debate, that mining jobs in Western Australia—everywhere you go in Western Australia you will see fluoro shirts. I may not have a great relationship with some mining companies—and that's personal because of their treatment of the trucking industry—but mining is not an enemy of mine. Gas is not an enemy of mine. The sooner we get it in this nation—there are certain members in this parliament who love to attack fossil fuels. You don't see them walking to work. They're in the air-conditioned BMW or they're sitting at the front of the pointy part of the aeroplane, but they still want to bag out fossil fuels. I wanted to get that on the record.

I will go to the case of Justice Charlesworth with the Santos case. I'm not going to go into it too deeply, but I'm not going to sugarcoat it. If there's a rotten apple, sort it out. I pride myself on my years as an owner operator. I pride myself on my years as a transport workers union organiser. I don't support rotten apples, and I don't support foul play like that. I'm glad that it was uncovered, and I'm glad of the actions taken.

In saying that, we'll now move on. As my colleague Senator Polley said so exquisitely no less than 10 minutes ago—clearly the EDO was in play when I first came into this building under the Howard government. The EDO was funded by the Howard government. I know it was the Abbott government—I think in about 2013—that defunded the EDO. We must not forget that, and we also must not forget, as Senator Polley made quite clear, it was an election commitment taken to the election by the Albanese opposition at the time. As much as some of those opposite might not like the idea, if you make an election commitment, sometimes there is an expectation from the good people of Australia that, if the opposition wins and gets into government, they will deliver on their promises. That might be a strange thing to some of those opposite, but the truth of the matter is that the Albanese Labor opposition was elected to government, and they delivered on their promise. They funded the EDO. We've heard the figures of $8 million.

I heard Senator Duniam's contribution, as well as the previous opposition speaker before that—something about another $15 million, as it came out at Senate estimates, until 2030. Colleagues, I've got to tell you, I'm not great at mathematics, but I've worked out that that's over five years away. They got $8 million this year, and there's another $15 million. That's only $3 million a year or something like that—crikey! Look at the work that the EDO has done, whether we like it or not. I want to quote a few figures here. It says here that 75 per cent of the EDO's income for the last financial year was from charitable donations, and state and territory governments fund the EDO too. There is a lot of buy in and there's a lot of partnership in that.

What we know is that without the funding for the Environmental Defenders Office, just 46 per cent of environmental approvals were approved on time previously. I know the frustration we share now, with the approval process taking too long to make sure it right, but it was only 46 per cent. With funding for the EDO—which we heard earlier, but I want to reiterate—no less than 84 per cent of environmental approvals are on time. How do you argue against that when you've got to have a bit of transparency and accountability?

Seriously, some of the arguments in this building, particularly this week—thankfully there are no children present now, and I hope they weren't here earlier on, when we saw some of the shenanigans being performed by some of the senators—are quite embarrassing. I did want to get up here. I wanted to have the opportunity to correct the record. I wanted to have the opportunity, through you, Madam Acting Deputy President, to actually make a contribution as a long-time senator in this chamber with some grace, with some dignity and without the screaming and the yelling that I've heard here in the last week. Coming up to Christmas, I tell you what: I don't know if anyone can sit here for any longer if we have to put up with the performances that we've seen here. I thank my colleagues for listening and giving me the opportunity to put forward my case. I support the EDO.