Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given to our many questions on the EPBC Act.

The EPBC package is a backward step for our environment and for climate. The Greens have been very clear: we will not rubberstamp laws that fail to protect our native forests, that let down our precious habitat with continuous land clearing, that leave our wildlife unprotected and that don't take action on climate. These are pro-mining, pro-logging laws that Labor is trying to rush through the parliament. They have the mining industry's fingerprints all over them; look no further than BHP, Chevron, the minerals council—all delighted at the prospect of these environmental laws, which will be rammed through if Labor get their way.

These bills are riddled with carve-out clauses to suit industry—carve-outs, loopholes, scope for more and more ministerial discretion. Climate and impacts are still not to be required to be assessed under the federal environmental laws—completely unsatisfactory. Large-scale deforestation will be able to continue. Bulldozers and chainsaws will have free reign, and the minister will have increased discretional powers. The minister will not rule out fast-tracking new coal and gas through these changes. The so-called national interest power in these bills would allow the minister to approve certain projects that might otherwise be rejected. The Greens cannot pass these so-called environmental laws as they stand in their current state. We need laws that protect nature, stop native forest logging, actually factor in the climate crisis and don't fast-track coal and gas, and this is not them.