Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today as a very proud environmental lawyer, having seen environmental laws for the last 25 years, written by John Howard, when he was Prime Minister, fail to deliver for nature and having seen all of the parameters of nature that we care about go backwards. I am so pleased that, after tough negotiations with the government, the Greens were able to secure some important improvements to this package, and I'll run through what they are. But this package is not everything that nature needs, and this package does not go anywhere near what we need on the climate crisis for meaningful protections for communities, for species, for all of us. This government is still clearly so in bed with the coal and gas industry that it makes me sick. This is the best we could get out of this government, and the job is not done. But this is a meaningful step forward on protections for forests, for land clearing and against the fast tracking of coal and gas.

The government's first version of this rewrite of our environmental laws would have fast tracked coal and gas to be approved within 30 days. It is 2025, and we are in a climate crisis. It is obscene that this government proposed that. Of course, they were hoping to get the coalition to agree on that, but the coalition are so in shambles and such absolute climate dinosaurs that they couldn't get their act together, which is good news for the climate because the Greens have been able to step in and stop that fast track, to stop coal and gas being approved within 30 days like this government wanted.

But the government wouldn't come at climate considerations being included in this piece of legislation, so there is still a gaping hole in these laws when it comes to climate. We will keep fighting every single day to hold this government to account on climate and to get the claws of the coal and gas industry out of our democracy—the fossil fuel subsidies, the fossil fuel donations, the underpayment of corporate tax, the free ride that the coal and gas companies continue to get out of this government just like they did out of the last.

As an environmental lawyer, I've looked in great detail at these amendments, and I am proud of what we have been able to improve in our federal environmental laws, something that I feel so very deeply and passionately about. The reason that I sought to be elected, as well as representing the interests of Queenslanders, nature and the community more broadly, was to fix these broken laws. They've been broken for 25 years. They're not completely fixed, but there are some meaningful steps forward that I am proud to be able to deliver, and I do so today. We have made it harder for fossil fuel corporations to wreck the environment, and we've secured new protections for native forests. We've secured protections against rampant land clearing right across the country and, in particular, in the catchment of the Great Barrier Reef, a place that I've passionately campaigned to protect through my professional life.

Those wins for native forests, the removal of that exemption from our environmental laws, are something that forest campaigners have worked for for decades. It is just ridiculous that forestry was completely exempt from environmental laws until today. The Greens have managed to remove that RFA exemption. Whilst that won't immediately end native forest logging, it is a serious blow to the logging industry. Within 18 months, those regional forest agreements will have to meet higher standards than they ever have before and logging operations everywhere will need to meet the new tests in these revised laws.

They will not be allowed to have unacceptable impacts. In particular, irreplaceable critical habitat will now no longer be able to be destroyed. That is an important step forward. I welcome the $300 million compensation package for those workers. Importantly, it's for the workers—not for the logging corporations, as Senator Duniam was inferring. That protection, that structural adjustment, for those workers is very welcome, and that is also an important sign that the writing is on the wall for this industry. People love our native forests, and they want them left standing. They want plantations to be where we source our wood needs from, and we can do that. This change will go a long way towards that.

We've also closed some of the loopholes for land clearing. Continuous use, something that was happening before the laws commenced, has been exempted from these laws for the last 25 years. What we've been able to achieve through our tough negotiations with government is that land clearing where the trees are more than 15 years old will no longer be able to use that continuous use exemption. That land clearing will now need to be subject to our federal environmental laws. That is a win. Obviously, it won't necessarily stop all of that land clearing, but it will bring it in for assessment, and it will be assessed against higher standards because we will have standards and those standards are now going to be higher than what the current laws are.

Importantly, in Great Barrier Reef catchments, we see that water quality is a huge problem with the reduced health of the reef. In order to help protect the reef and build resilience, we need to make sure that the land clearing in those catchments, that's just flooding the Great Barrier Reef with nutrients, pesticides and run-off—we need to try to keep those trees in particular in the ground for their own sake and for that of the reef as well. Importantly, we have secured additional protection for Great Barrier Reef catchments and for trees and shrubs around waterways within a set amount of 50 metres. That will effectively result in that clearing requiring federal environmental consideration. I really welcome that, particularly since we've got a coalition government in Queensland that doesn't give a rats about nature and is happy to see trees felled no matter where they are—reef catchment or not.

The other key point that I want to mention is the water trigger. When I first got elected to this place, back in 2011, I went into a meeting with the then Independent member for New England, Tony Windsor; and the then Greens leader and senator, Bob Brown, an incredible environmental icon—two incredibly decent humans. In that meeting, we proposed protecting water from coal and gas. Given that that was a minority parliament, we were able to get that protection.

As an environmental lawyer, I suggested to Tony and Bob that we make sure that that power be not able to be given back to states and territories, like can happen under our current laws. Keeping that water trigger in federal hands has been something that I have been very proud of ever since, and today we are still going keep that water trigger in federal hands. We are not going to see it in the states and territories. I flag the Northern Territory in particular, who just want to let the gas companies ride roughshod over First Nations rights and completely trash groundwater and climate. We are not going to let those criminals be in charge of protecting water from coal and gas, and this amendment to keep the water trigger in federal hand will do that. That is a significant comfort—that those years of effort and that protection will not be lessened.

One thing we were not able to get through these negotiations, which I will move a second reading amendment to fix, is to acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded in this ancient country and that the principles of free, prior and informed consent should be codified in our nation's laws. We have a First Nations consultation standard due for release as part of the new infrastructure. That sounds positive, but my amendment asks that it reflect the principles of free, prior and informed consent. I move:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that sovereignty was never ceded, and that free, prior and informed consent should be codified in our nation's laws; and

(b) calls on the Government to develop and release for public comment a National Environmental Standard on First Nations Consultation and Engagement that incorporates principles of free, prior and informed consent".

We didn't get everything we wanted in these negotiations, but new protections for native forests, protections for land everywhere and in particular in Great Barrier Reef catchments, stopping coal and gas being fast tracked within 30 days like the original bill proposed and retaining the water trigger in federal hands so that we can protect water from rapacious coal and gas corporations are a significant step forward for nature.

I'm also pleased that things like renewable energy and housing will be able to move more promptly through our assessment system. I note the former speaker suggested that this might even bring house prices down. You know what will bring down prices? Removing the property investor tax perks this and the last government are so wedded to. I'm sorry, but we don't see this as a fix for the housing crisis, folks. Sure, it will help. If you want to make homes more affordable, get rid of those property investor tax perks. They should never have been introduced in the first place.

Some other positive improvements that we've been able to secure include some fetters on ministerial discretion. At the moment, the minister has been able to tick off on any old destruction that he or she likes, even if it would have a significant impact on things the act is meant to protect. There was absolute carte blanche on what could be approved. That was never acceptable, and, of course, it led to virtually nothing ever being refused. It was essentially a tick and flick. What we've now been able to achieve is that unacceptable impacts cannot be approved. There is an extensive definition of what an unacceptable impact is, and, importantly, it includes that irreplaceable critical habitat can no longer be approved for destruction. That is very important. It's not enough, but it is very important, and it is a new protection that we don't currently have. Likewise, in the offsets rules that will come out, the Greens think offsets are absolute nonsense. They don't work. You can't offset nature; it's not a zero sum game. What we've been able to achieve is protection for critically endangered species and critically endangered ecological communities. Again, that is a new protection. There are finally some no-go zones, where irreplaceable critical habitat and habitat for critically endangered species and ecological communities now cannot be destroyed by the big corporations that want to destroy them. That is a good thing, and I'm proud of it.

I want to particularly thank the Greens environment spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who will be speaking shortly for her tough negotiation and for delivering an outcome that I am proud of and that the Greens are proud to deliver today for nature and for the community. Were it not for Senator Hanson-Young's tenaciousness and persistence, we might be in a different situation today. We might be seeing the government doing a deal with the coalition to ram through fast-tracking for coal and gas within 30 days, with even less protection for nature and certainly no restrictions on native forest logging or land clearing, with the water trigger gone and with no fetters on ministerial discretion. It is chalk and cheese.

I'm pleased that the government finally realised that, if they were to have a shred of credibility, they could not deal with the climate deniers and the dinosaurs in the coalition. These folk are such a rabble, and they're so obsessed with who's leading them that they've forgotten that people want policy outcomes. They can't even organise a proverbial in a proverbial. The government has seen that the Greens are here as a responsible and firm but constructive party that will always push to get outcomes. Our price is quite high, and we are proud of that. We didn't get everything we wanted, but we have delivered improved protections for forests and land clearing. We have stopped coal and gas being fast-tracked with a 30-day approval period.

I do want to note that it's clear that this government is doing nowhere near enough on climate. We've got very low carbon pollution targets. We've seen 32 coal and gas projects approved by this government since they took office, five of those in this term of government. It was not even two weeks after they won the election that we saw the environment minister tick off on the southern hemisphere's biggest gas plant, the North West Shelf for Woodside, which I just visited two weeks ago. I saw the ancient rock art of Murujuga with traditional custodians, including Rae Cooper, who showed me 40,000- and 50,000-year-old rock art literally 100 metres away from a gas plant that has already been destroying and eroding that precious oldest living art gallery on the planet. This government didn't bat an eyelid. They didn't go and visit it themselves. The minister just ticked off on that destruction. So the climate fight continues. We will see you in the forests, on the blockade, and we will see you on the streets, demanding climate action. We will always fight to stop coal and gas companies running this parliament and fight for nature and a climate that will sustain us all, for people to have cheaper energy bills and to have their basic needs met.