Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Trade and Tourism (Senator Farrell) today to questions without notice I and Senator Faruqi asked today relating to the environment and housing.

I was pleased to see the announcement of the review of the environmental management regime for offshore petroleum, about which I asked questions of Senator Farrell, representing the Minister for Resources, Minister King. I have been intimately involved in the Barossa-Tiwi case, where traditional owners have challenged NOPSEMA in relation to both the regulations and the lack of consultation that occurred. We all know what that was—it was an unanswered phone call and two unanswered emails that they sent, which is a pathetic excuse for consultation. The fact that traditional owners were not and are still not considered relevant people as part of the legislation in this country means that the gravity of this case should be taken seriously. When the government seeks to roll out a review of offshore petroleum, whether it's fit for purpose in this country and all of the projects that are funded from that, it can't just quietly announce that in the AFR, as it did on 31 May, saying that the review has actually started. The expectation is of transparency and accountability to the Australian public.

The government needs to think about what that consultation piece looks like and the diversity in voices. You need to stop going to individual hand-picked people across the country to endorse your regulations, your policies and your legislation. You say, 'We've co-designed it with people; we've asked people; we've consulted with this mob.' In fact, you haven't and you continue not to. You don't ask the First Nations people who are in the High Court making challenges. You don't ask environmental groups, who know the scientific risk of these projects. You listen to the multibillion-dollar fossil fuel companies about this review because they provide the dirty donations that you get at every election time. It's the locked smoky room that my colleague Senator Shoebridge always refers to—the little processes where you get industry to make sure you can pull everything together for yourselves. So there was no media release and nothing said by the minister. All of a sudden, it appeared in the budget as a line item, and we saw $12 million committed to it. There was no process. In fact, Minister Farrell couldn't even articulate it to me when I asked the question about it, which goes to the heart of it, showing that there has not been that much attention to detail by this government again.

Moving to housing, I am loving the debate and the banter of our relationships across the chamber but not the continued excuses by this government, who do not want to back renters. They don't want to understand the importance of why the Greens have stood their ground in relation to this. Oh my God, they did a backflip. After saying they didn't have the additional money to do this for housing, they came out with an announcement on the weekend of an extra $2 billion for social and affordable housing. The government doesn't control the rents, according to them. But there is power in the National Cabinet—being able to talk to your state and territory colleagues, your premiers, in relation to freezing and capping rent increases. That is something you have the ability to do, which is what the government should be doing—having national leadership on this issue. It is as my colleague from the other place Mr Chandler-Mather continues to say, because he's the person in the grassroots campaign, out knocking on doors—that's right—listening to renters and people who have to choose between paying their rent and feeding their kids. They will be the people who blow out your social housing list. Putting money into that is just feeding the beast because you're not caring about renters in relation to being able to freeze or cap those rent increases.

We don't want any more excuses from this government. The honeymoon is over. For 12 months, you've been in government. You need to start looking after everyday Australians instead of looking after your mates. If you've got $30 billion to put into stage 3 tax cuts, you can put more money into affordable housing and think about how you can use your power.

Question agreed to.