David Pocock (ACT, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Almost 100 years ago, one of the fathers of conservation, Aldo Leopold, said:

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.

I think this whole EPBC debate has shown just how far we have to go in in this place when it comes to the way that we think and talk about and act towards the land that we live on, the land that sustains us. We've seen this whole debate being about the politics of it rather than actually turning our minds to the places and species that sustain us and that we love and rely on for our very survival. It's probably no surprise that we've ended with a mishmash of bills that may provide an improvement on the first EPBC Act but where it's really questionable how much they're going to turn things around.

So I urge my colleagues to think more about that. As farmer and conservation Doug Duren puts it, 'It's not ours, it's just our turn.' We have to start to think about this differently. We have to start to think longer term and make decisions that will let us hand this incredible continent to future generations, to young people, in better shape. That takes political leadership. That takes people who are actually thinking beyond the next election. I haven't seen that from the Albanese government when it comes to the environment and when it comes to nature. So I urge the government: think longer term. Let's change the way we talk about nature in this country. We are entirely reliant on it. It is in our self-interest as a species to act in a way that aligns with that.