Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

Last night, I was in full swing, analysing this government's failures when it comes to legislating to improve environmental protections in this country but also to do it in a way that actually addresses the failings of this government when it comes to productivity measures and ways to provide investor certainty. Just to recap, for those who weren't tuned in last night, it is an appalling set of events when, after three years of failed attempts, the government is only now trying to bring on something that has been desperately needed for so long.

In the last term, we saw Minister Plibersek with her closed door meetings. Participants in the stakeholder process were being forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, NDAs, because, despite the environment being a public good—something we all depend upon, some derive a living from and we all enjoy the beauty of—the fact that we legislate to manage it, to protect it and to improve it is something that we don't want the public to know about! So this government took the approach of seeking to do all of its negotiations behind closed doors, away from the prying eyes of the public—because we don't need them to have any input, any insight or any say over how this country's environment is managed!—and, certainly, insofar as it relates to how business operates when it comes to its interface with the environment.

I will be very interested to see, over time, what productivity measures and what investor certainty is provided out of the broader package of measures. This legislation before us here today is but a very small part of the large suite of reforms required to fix this broken system, and it is, obviously, something that we will support because it's important we do get that ongoing certainty for the boards of management of the parks that I've already mentioned in my contributions. But that is not the answer to the problems we face here, and the government's track record does not bode well for the future. When it comes to exactly how we think this government will be able to do what it needs to do in our country's interests in terms of ensuring, for those who want to make a decision about whether to invest here and create jobs here in a sustainable way, to world's best practice and world's best standard, that they can do it in a way that is not overly burdensome or cumbersome, that strangles investment opportunities with red tape and therefore sends those jobs offshore, preventing the economic activity from occurring here.

Additionally, as I said before too, tinkering around the edges with this legislation today—legislation which is important and necessary—does not fix the problem that we have. The three years of wasted time on environmental law reform, which went nowhere under this government, have meant that those businesses that could operate here, under strict conditions, in a way that respects the environment, have taken the decision to offshore their investment. People who could mine for a certain commodity here—again, to world's best standard—have made the decision to go elsewhere because of the uncertainty around the regulatory regime.

You only have to look at the McPhillamys goldmine. Someone reminded me of it this morning. It was a mining proposition that would have injected billions of dollars of economic opportunity and activity into our country—in your home state of New South Wales, Acting Deputy President Sharma. It went through the full state and federal environmental and planning approvals, and, having secured all of those very, very high-bar approvals, it was then knocked on the head at the very last minute, which again points to a broken system, because the environmental approval laws in this country are not interfacing in any way with Indigenous heritage protection laws. This project would have meant billions of dollars of economic activity, as I said, but it's now gone and will not be done here. Goodness knows what that company is going to do, but, again, this government put its head in the sand and didn't think it was an issue worth dealing with.

We'll wait and see what happens with the full suite of legislation, but, in the meantime, these reforms are sensible and should be supported.