Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

Today is an incredibly shameful day. It's shameful for democracy in this country—the guillotining of legislation that is so critical to the wellbeing of all Australians. It is shameful because of this dirty, rushed deal between the Greens and Labor.

I'm going to talk to you at length in the next 15 minutes about all the many reasons why I weep. I weep today for what this government, this very bad Labor government, is doing to Australians' rights to be heard. We are all elected to come here to represent people from right across this land, and instead Labor will shut those concerns down—real concerns of Australian farmers, people who put food on our table, and Australian foresters, who allow us to build our homes with the most renewable resource rather than import it from places that don't have our high standards. Instead of Australian fishermen being allowed to fish in our abundant seas, we're letting in illegal fishing. They are allowing Australian jobs, Australian well-paid jobs, that allow us to have the best lifestyle in the world, to be sent offshore. What does that leave us here? It leaves us with nothing.

We are on a pathway to being one of the poorest countries on earth. We are on a pathway to not being able to afford to protect our environment, because this government is ensuring, with this shameful deal with the Greens, that all of that is lost to us. Who wins? It's not Australians. It's not Australians who rely on farmers to grow their food, on foresters to grow their homes or on fishermen to produce our great fish. It's certainly not leaving us with the great jobs that mean that Australians could enjoy their environment. We are able to have environmental protections that are appropriate, but not this. Not this selling out of Australia into the future.

The Albanese Labor government has ensured that we can mark our calendar today. This is such a dark day. We've already had Mr Bowen sign an agreement with 24 other countries—not major economies of the world, not countries where people get to enjoy high standards of living and higher environmental protections. No. He signed a deal to see the end of two of Australia's biggest export industries, coal and gas. What the Greens fail to understand, and they fail to ever tell anybody, is it is these industries that fund must environmental activities in this country. They do baseline studies. They ensure that environmental scientists are employed in well-paid jobs. They study koalas and other habitats. That is what a great, effective, high-standard mining industry gives us, but under Minister Bowen, under the Greens, under Mr Albanese this will all stop because we are seeing an absolute exodus of mining and gas industry from this country.

The Greens will celebrate that. Labor will celebrate that. But if that's your job, what will you go and work in next? What well-paid job will you and your family go to next? I don't know what that is. What is it that will pay for us to have Medicare and the PBS and NDIS, and roads and schools and hospitals? Who pays for that? Well at the moment it is the billions of dollars that come in from these incredibly high-standard, sophisticated industries, which are our mining and gas sectors. What this government is doing with this anti-fossil-fuel rhetoric is to ensure that Australians don't get to enjoy that either. How long will it be before we're having to choose between being able to have those great programs and the most basic services that Australians deserve?

We have been negotiating hard with the government. The coalition has been going forward and seeking to explain the corners, the rough edges that this legislation brings. The most simple example I can give you is the definition of nuclear. It ties back to ARPANSA. This government is so obsessed with denying Australians the opportunity for nuclear energy that they have failed to allow these incredible export industries, which are so necessary to our modern way of life—critical minerals, rare-earth elements, bauxite and gallium all occur in radioactive ores, but under this legislation they will not go ahead. We have been trying to negotiate with the government, to point out that this legislation fails Australians. And even worse, it even fails the government's own agenda. Their own agenda to sign a critical metals deal with the US fails under this. It means Australians are denied the opportunity to be the beneficiaries of the abundant resources that we have in this country. We will not be able to benefit from that.

Let's think about who the winners from this legislation are because, to be clear, it's not the environment. It is absolutely not the environment. The winner is bigger government. It's more duplication of bureaucrats sitting in air-conditioned offices—powered mostly by coal and gas. They will be the beneficiaries. Lawyers will be the beneficiaries. Environmental lawyers, who relish and revel in tying up projects that would employ Australians and that would see us have more gas, more energy abundance in this country, will benefit. It's certainly not the environment. And it is certainly denying Australians, young Australians, the sort of certainty that has been promised, like some kind of nirvana, by those on the opposite side. There will not be faster housing approvals, not under this onerous, restrictive legislation. There will certainly not be cheaper houses, not under the higher cost of construction that this legislation will result in. It will certainly not result in lower costs of energy.

Australians are paying eyewatering costs of living at the moment, whether it be your electricity bill, your gas bill, the food on your table or the petrol in your car. All of those things cost more thanks to the Albanese Labor government's rushed renewables rollout, their incredibly onerous emissions reductions targets that are resulting in not better outcomes for Australians but just more taxes on the sort of businesses that employ Australians, certainly in the parts of the nation that I know so well. Labor's emissions reductions programs have cost Australian farmers, Australian foresters and Australian fishermen first and foremost. Ninety-five per cent of Australia's emissions reductions, which has been achieved at twice the rate of the rest of the world, has been at the cost of Australian farmers being able to do their jobs.

What else has it resulted in? It has resulted in the most incredible mental anguish and stress from farmers sitting around kitchen tables, poring over forms, attempting to get a bureaucrat on the phone but being told they're working from home today; maybe they can send an email to try and get clarity on this ridiculous, onerous legislation. This legislation is not about streamlining. It's not about reducing duplication. It's about doubling down: more agencies, more bureaucracies, less response to Australians who think that they deserve what we have enjoyed to date—a great quality of life, a prosperous nation that can afford to pay the bills and, at the same time, the sort of environment that we all enjoy going out into.

I want to touch on this outrageous deal that has been done with the Greens on continuous use. The NFF and farming groups across Australia came to me saying, 'We're so worried that the government will stop negotiating with you and will turn to the Greens.' Most of Australian food production comes from land that has been managed over hundreds of years. It has come from places like Tasmania and Victoria, the coastal parts of Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales—well-managed country and a very small part of the country. Under Labor's goals, we have already lost seven million hectares of farming land. And under this, under Labor's emissions reductions and this legislation, it will fall by another five million hectares. What do you think that does to Australia's food security? We are seeing dairy farms where the cows are being sold off to the abattoir so that trees can be planted, and not trees that we're going to be able to use for housing. This is just denying Australians food security. It's denying Australian farmers the ability to do what they do best and most passionately. It is taking away the ability for Australians to feel secure in this uncertain time.

This is an incredibly shameless piece of legislation. It's a shameless process. I know that there are members of the government who say privately to me how ashamed they are of this process. Every year we see hundreds of pieces—I'm exaggerating—tens of pieces of legislation just guillotined, with no discussion, no debate, no opportunity for amendments and no opportunity for the coalition to hold this very bad, destructive government to account. This has got to stop, and the Greens have got to stop enabling it.

Today there was a statement from the Australian Energy Producers organisation. They've said that the Albanese government striking 'an agreement with the Greens on environmental law reform is a squandered opportunity to address the significant costs and delays in delivering gas to Australian consumers'. They say:

Carving gas out of streamlined reforms is simply not in the national interest. The deal will entrench slow approvals which will drive up energy costs, deter investment and further delay the new gas supply Australia urgently needs.

More than 5 million Australian households rely on natural gas, it is an essential input to manufacturing and is the reliable back-up that helps to keep the lights on as our electricity system transforms.

By conceding to the Greens, the Government has chosen more red tape and uncertainty instead of enabling new gas supply

I think this is an incredibly naive government, a government that thinks that investors don't have opportunities, that they can't go and invest in other countries like Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico or Qatar. All of these places are competing for Australian jobs, and the taxes that they would pay here could be used on Medicare, on the NDIS, on the PBS, on schools and roads and hospitals.

Mark your calendar today because today is the beginning of the end of the prosperity that Australians have enjoyed, where every generation has a better quality of life than the generation before. Under this government, the next generation—our children, our grandchildren—will have a lower standard of living than we have enjoyed. I didn't come to the Senate for that. I didn't come to be a part of the sort of economic destruction, environmental destruction that this government has overseen. This is going to make it harder for Australians, and the worst part is it's cloaked in slick environmental cuddly words to give Australians some sense of security that what has happened today is okay. But it is not okay what this Australian government is doing to Australians, not just today but for our future, when we are poor, and we are cold and we are hungry, because they could not resist the allure of caving to the Greens political party. I am ashamed. The committee will report on 24 March. We could have waited for that.