Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is the Attorney-General, Senator Brandis. This morning the government introduced its bill to stop Australians holding the Minister for the Environment to account when he has broken environmental laws. Are you introducing this bill to stop any challenge to the minister's approval of the Shenhua coalmine in the Liverpool Plains, and to stop any challenge to the minister's upcoming decision on Great Barrier Reef dredging and dumping to expand the Abbot Point coal port?

Government Senators:

Government senators interjecting—

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One moment, Senator Brandis. I do not know whether you heard the entire question. I missed a portion of it. What was the preface to your question, Senator Waters? I got the tail end of it, but what was the preface to your question?

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks, Mr President. I too could hear Senator O'Sullivan very loudly. My question was: are you introducing this bill to stop any challenge to the minister's approval of the Shenhua coalmine, or to the Abbot Point coal port expansion.

Stephen Parry (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, I have the rest of the question now. If the Attorney-General is satisfied, I am.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No, Senator Waters, we are not—that is absolutely not the reason we are introducing the bill. What we are introducing the bill to do is to stop people who want to prosecute a political cause, rather than a legitimate legal cause, from using the courts as a political vehicle. We know that that is what they intend to do because they have told us. Greenpeace, Wotif—other environmental, radical, activist groups have published a document about destroying Australian infrastructure. This is what they have said. Let me read the strategy to you:

Our strategy is to 'disrupt and delay' key projects and infrastructure …

They set out the six elements of the strategy, the first of which is to challenge key infrastructure developments through litigation. They elaborate on the point. I am reading from their document, their declaration of war against the Australian economy:

1. Mount legal challenges to the approval of several key ports, mines and rail lines.

2. Run legal challenges that delay, limit or stop all of the major infrastructure projects …

That is the declaration of intent. That is the declaration of war against the Australian economy, and we intend to stop it. Senator Waters, you should hang your head in shame, as a Senator representing Queensland. I wonder when was the last you visited Central Queensland? If you had done so, you would have found the despair and the sense of hopelessness among people in Rockhampton, in Mackay, in Gladstone, in Emerald and places like that, as a result of the stopping of the Carmichael mine project, which over the life of the project would have brought 10,000 jobs to that region. And you are happy about that! Shame on you!

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. On that very point, are you aware that Adani has admitted in court that it grossly exaggerated its own projected jobs figures, saying that its project would not, in fact, create 10,000 jobs but seven times less that. When will your government stop repeating the lies of Adani, and given that there is still no finance for this project, and the Queensland Treasury has described it as 'unbankable', when will you get a real plan for Queensland jobs like the renewable energy jobs of the future?

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our plan for Queensland jobs, just as is our plan for jobs across Australia, is to grow the economy. You have just heard the Minister for Employment speaking about the 336,000 new jobs that have been created in the last two years under the Abbott government. We want to see that happen in Queensland as well, and that is why the Carmichael mine project is so important to Queensland—in particular to Central Queensland. This is what Mr Keith De Lacy, Mr Goss's Treasurer, said in this morning's Courier-Mail:

… green activism had increased the costs of developing a mine by up to 10 times … "I agree with everything the Federal Government is doing …"

That is Mr De Lacy, the Treasurer in a successful state Labor government, the government of Mr Wayne Goss. He agrees with everything we are doing, and so should you, Senator Waters. But you are more concerned with ideological crusades than workers' jobs. (Time expired)

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. Minister Hunt this morning backed away from language about 'vigilante litigation' and in fact refused to use this phrase. Is this because your government has realised that calling Australians who love our environment 'vigilantes' is not such a good idea? Do you agree with Minister Hunt or do you agree with the Prime Minister, who thinks that farmers, traditional owners, mums and dads, and conservation and community groups who want our environmental laws upheld are vigilantes?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Waters, every man and woman on the coalition bench loves the environment. I accept, by the way, Senator Waters, that you love the environment, and I even accept that the Australian Labor Party loves the environment. It is a question of how you treat people. It is a question of how you deliver. The EPBC Act, the most comprehensive set of environmental laws that the Australian parliament has ever passed, is of course the work of the Howard government. But there is a provision of the EPBC Act—section 487—which has been taken advantage of, not by the good solid citizens to whom you refer but by the sort of people who have the hide to put out a document like this, 'Stopping the Australian coal export boom', and declare their intention to use the courts as a political tool rather than for the legitimate resolution of disputes between citizens. They are the vigilantes, and we are going to put a stop to it.