Murray Watt (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) Share this | Hansard source

The legislation includes stronger environmental protections, more efficient and robust project approvals and greater accountability and transparency in environmental decision-making. Unfortunately, it's back to the future with a rerun of Australia's worst reality TV show: the 'no-alition'. It's back for another season.

But, in this season—happening today in the House of Representatives—we see the Greens party team up with Barnaby Joyce and his other anti-renewable, climate-denying MPs in voting against these laws. We see the Greens political party vote against reforms that will deliver Australia's first National Environmental Protection Agency, new national environmental standards that projects must meet and higher penalties for those who illegally damage our environment. At the same time, we see the Liberal and National parties vote against reforms that will deliver faster assessments and approvals for major projects, up to $7 billion injected into the national economy and updated bilateral agreement frameworks for states and territories to fast-track assessments and approvals.

It's vital that these laws are passed so we can build the housing and renewables we need to reach net zero by 2050. Of course, this is a policy—net zero—that is about to be dropped by the Liberal Party at the behest of their junior coalition partner, who are less than one-sixth the size of them in the Senate. (Time expired)