Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Former Prime Minister Paul Keating once said of the environment:

We depend on it for our resources.

And for the national wealth in which all of us share.

For our recreational pleasure and spiritual inspiration.

For our soil, air and water.

And he said that we rely on the environment for our survival. Very rarely are there issues that bring people together in the way that recognition that we needed environmental reform has, be it from stakeholders from industry and the environment or from MPs from all parts of this building. What we know is that Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act needs reform. It is more than 25 years old. It is not protecting the environment and it is putting unnecessary handbrakes on economic projects and resources projects across the country.

Thanks to the Albanese government and the work of Minister Murray Watt, Labor is delivering what we promised we would: genuine environmental reform. For the first time, the amended EPBC legislation will set national environmental standards to provide clear and strong guidelines, a national environment protection agency to ensure compliance, and tougher penalties for those people who breach our environmental laws. But it also takes us to a place where we will do our planning at a regional level so that we plan projects and environmental protection at a landscape scale, not project by project, which will allow holistic and more certain approvals to be given and projects approved or not approved more quickly. Bilateral agreements with the states will remove duplication of assessments and get approvals through quicker as well, as will streamlined pathways.

As the chair of the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee, I would also like to note that these reforms have recently been before my committee. We've had three public hearings. We've heard from 78 witnesses and 42 organisations and received hundreds of submissions and thousands of letters. I thank all of those who have taken the time to make those submissions and give evidence before our inquiry.