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

Thank you to the parliament for participating in this very important debate about major changes to our national environmental laws, which will deliver much stronger protections for the environment and much quicker decision-making processes for business. And thank you, in particular, to Senator Hanson-Young for the constructive negotiations that you've undertaken with me and with the government that have resulted in these big wins both for the environment and for the business community.

On your specific question regarding the national environmental standards, it's absolutely the government's intention to proceed as quickly as possible with the development of new national environmental standards. One of the key recommendations, in fact the centrepiece of recommendation, from the review of Professor Graeme Samuel, who I know is in the building today, is that we should create new national environmental standards that effectively set benchmarks for decision-makers, ministers, officials in departments and the future EPA when making decisions on whether to approve projects and whether to approve a range of other decisions under the act.

One of the important aspects of the bill that we're seeking to pass today is to grant the minister of the day the power to create national environmental standards, and they will operate as regulations, so subordinate legislation. Until we have this bill passed, no minister has the power to create national environmental standards. Those standards, being regulations, will need to go through the usual statutory consultation period of a minimum of 20 business days once they are published for consultation. We recognise there has been huge interest in the standards across the community, and that's why we have begun a consultation process around two of those standards, one regarding matters of national environmental significance and one regarding environmental offsets. As I say, if and when we pass this bill today—and I know that we will—we won't be able to create those standards for some time because a formal statutory consultation period will need to be undertaken. As I say, we thought it was a good-faith gesture to put online, on the department's website, those two draft standards, as they currently stand, to give people an early look at what those standards are likely to look like and provide their feedback, which we could take into account.

But, as I say, in the new year we will formally begin a consultation process on those two standards and, most likely, others. I think, Senator Hanson-Young, the two you specifically asked about were First Nations engagement and community consultation, both really important matters. We do, as a Labor government, want to make sure that First Nations communities are consulted at an early stage when it comes to the impacts of projects on matters of environmental significance to those communities. Further, next year, we'll be getting moving even more on a separate set of reforms to cultural heritage matters.

But, of course, what we're talking about here today is environmental protection. The purpose of that standard, in general, is to ensure the proponents of projects properly, and at an early stage, consult First Nations communities about the potential impacts of a project on environmental matters of concern to First Nations communities. Let's not get into scare campaigns about vetoes and all that ridiculous stuff that we normally see whenever we're talking about these kinds of matters. It's about consultation and engagement with First Nations people.

The other standard that Senator Hanson-Young asked about was community consultation. Again, we understand—and I think everyone in this chamber believes—that it is important for there to be a proper degree of consultation with local communities about projects before they go ahead. What we are doing in that standard is to set out the expectations that would need to be met regarding community consultation as part of a decision-making process. In terms of the timeframes for those, the drafting of the First Nations engagement standard is very well advanced, and we expect to have an early version of that, again, available for the public to see, if not by the end of this year, then very early in the new year.

The community consultation standard is not as far developed at this point in time as the matters of national environmental significance, offsets and First Nations engagement, but that will be an early priority as well. I would expect that, by about March or April next year, we should be in a position to create those first two standards that are already out for consultation, and, in the first few months of next year, we want to be making real progress on those two other standards—First Nations engagement and community consultation—in addition to other standards. We are working on a standard around data and environmental information, and there will be other matters, as well, that are the subject of standards that we will progressively roll out. I undertake to consult not just with the general community on the development of those standards but also, obviously, with all senators and political representatives. It's important to note that those standards will be disallowable instruments, as well. To be honest, it's probably in my interest to make sure that there's good consultation around the development of those standards so that the Senate doesn't believe that they need to be disallowed.