Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese government is once again delivering on our commitments to the Australian people. By the end of this week, landmark environmental reforms will pass the parliament. For the first time, Australia will have a national environment protection agency. For the first time, Australia will have national environmental standards. We will deliver higher penalties for the most serious breaches of environmental law. We'll ensure that the rules for regional forest agreements comply with the same standards and rules for other industries, and we'll require proponents of large emitting projects to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and their emission reduction plans.

I congratulate the Prime Minister, the minister for the environment and the many others in this place who have helped to get us to this point. All of you are now part of Labor's transformative environmental legacy alongside Gough Whitlam and his government, who introduced Australia's first federal environment and heritage legislation, created the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and who recognised the land rights of Australia's First Peoples; alongside Bob Hawke and his Labor government, who saved the Franklin River, the Daintree and the Wet Tropics and who protected Antarctica from mining exploration; and alongside the governments of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, who delivered the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and who kicked off investment in clean renewable energy. When we look at the long sweep of Australia's history, one thing is abundantly clear: transformative environment protection can only be delivered by Labor governments. It is delivered in partnership with community movements who argue for these steps, but it is delivered by Labor governments.

I want to pay tribute to all of the activists who have always understood this and who have worked so hard for so many years so a Labor government could pass a transformative bill like this one. I'm proud to have played my part in the formation of LEAN, the Labor Environment Action Network, who have campaigned also for these measures and backed them in. To those Labor members, I say: all of us here stand on your shoulders. This is a great day for Australia, a great day for our environment and a day that that you have played a critical part in bringing about.