Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Environment, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What a great opportunity this is to have a little bit of scrutiny of the legislation that's before the chamber, which will now be rammed through in record time. This is a pattern of behaviour of the Greens down the end there. At the end of every sitting year we see this arrangement. The mighty new Labor-Greens alliance comes together. They've been behind closed doors for a couple of weeks now, hatching this one up. I'd very much love to know what the price of this latest agreement between the government and their natural bedfellows the Australian Greens political party is this time. Last time, as we know, it was that sumptuous party room down the end of the corridor, lined with myrtle and Huon pine and other endangered old-growth species. But, hey, that doesn't matter. That was the price last time. What have they got this time? Let's not forget that these laws were so important they had to be fully interrogated through the Senate committee process. We had the Greens environment spokesperson, Senator Hanson-Young, saying, 'We must have a full interrogation of these bills by the committee and we cannot report before the end of March.' Well, here we are, and who's voting to ram the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and related bills through the Senate today? None other than the Australian Greens environment spokesperson, Senator Hanson-Young, and all of her colleagues.

If you look at the Greens press release issued today about the dirty, dodgy deal they've done, with the price unspecified—the price tag we can't find anywhere on the product before us—there are criticisms of the legislation that the Greens are supporting. This is them wanting to have their cake and eat it too. It says, 'Despite significant wins for nature, the bill is still woefully short of what the climate needs, with Labor's refusal to take meaningful climate action,' et cetera, et cetera. You've got the whip hand here, Australian Greens. You signed up. You're supporting the legislation, but you're still unhappy with it. I do not understand how this works—how they can say it's a terrible bill, that it doesn't do what needs to be done, yet they'll sign up and pass it? It's because it is, as I said, just another dodgy, dirty deal made behind closed doors that these warriors for integrity and transparency—not—want to pursue. They will do anything it takes to get whatever it is they need. The list of criticisms goes on in this extensive press release crowing about their win. But, when they sign up and support this legislation, you've got to wonder how serious they are about the issues they are backing in here.

I see some of the detail that was talked about in a press conference that was held just over an hour ago, I understand, by the Prime Minister, the Minister for the Environment and Water, and the Manager of Government Business in the Senate, Senator Gallagher. The shutdown of native forestry happens to be a part of what this government has signed up to today. Why would the Greens support this bill if it didn't do this? I'll tell you what: the only reason they have signed up is that it does do that. This will shut down native forestry in three years time, when the RFAs no longer have their exemption. That's what's been signed up to here today, and that's exactly what's going to happen. Those RFAs will go out the door. Native forestry, a sustainable industry, will be shut down. There will be tens of thousands of workers across the country without a job.

We don't know the details yet, but apparently there is a bailout package in the order of $300 million that is being supported by this crowd down the end of the chamber, the Australian Greens, who last week in the Senate told us that this native forestry industry is too reliant on taxpayers' money. But, hey, let's not worry about it. We'll hand them another $300 million of taxpayers' money to exit the industry and shut them down. That sounds like a bit of a prop-up to me, but this is what the Greens have signed up to: more taxpayers' money to native forestry—and Labor has signed up to the shutdown of this industry. I know there are supporters of this industry in Labor ranks. I just wonder where they are on these issues. Where is the union in relation to forestry workers on this issue? Why aren't they standing up for the workers who've been abandoned under this dodgy, dirty, Labor-Greens deal done behind closed doors at the eleventh hour? Where are they?

The coalition was negotiating in good faith, and even as late as 10 o'clock last night there were discussions ongoing between the coalition and the government. We still haven't finally heard back. We got our message that they weren't going to deal with us through the press conference this morning. I don't think that's a good-faith discussion. It makes me wonder whether this crowd over here—the government, the Labor Party, the party of the worker, the party that wants to bring down energy prices but won't and in fact sends them in the other direction—had any intention of doing anything other than a deal with the Greens. It's a convenient deal that happens to be one that ultimately sells out workers in a number of industries.

Those good-faith negotiations I was talking about—and they were fairly modest—would have gone some way to protecting these industries and these jobs. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of jobs are now at risk because of the added layers of complication that the Greens have inserted into these laws. We won't have a chance today to fully interrogate this legislation. We'll have an hour of committee stage, assuming that the full time for the second reading stage is taken up here today. There is in excess of 700 pages of legislation and in excess of 700 pages of explanatory memoranda. A range of amendments have been announced today—less than an hour ago—and are being circulated only as we speak, but it's all going to be done today. It's all going to be through this parliament and back to the other place so that this government can go on holiday chalking up a win.

We said earlier this week, when we announced that we were still keen and had a number of amendments this government should take into account in progressing the laws—a set of amendments that we thought were sensible and that industry were supportive of—that there should be no rush to do a deal with the Greens. As we said, at the very outset, this would come at an extremely high cost, but the government was willing to do a deal with anyone. The coalition supports the mining industry and the forestry industry in all its forms, including the native forestry industry. We support the more than 50,000 workers across the country who have jobs reliant on that industry. We also support the fossil fuel industry, farmers and property developers. Property developers are going to build the houses we need to ease the housing crisis. The government were willing to work with us, according to the minister earlier this week, but apparently they were also willing to do a deal with the Greens, as evidenced by the fact that they have.

This is a party that has inserted into this bill, as I said before, a clause that will kill off native forestry at the end of three years. The government will deny it and say they won't, but why is there a $300 million bailout package in there then? If it's not going to kill the industry, why put a penny into dealing with this? It's something this party down the end here, the Australian Greens, have railed against since time immemorial—taxpayers' money going to this industry. But today, it's okay.

It does go to the issue of conviction. It does go to the issue of belief, when it comes to this government—the Labor Party as it is in 2025. What do they stand for? They'll happily do a deal with anyone. It doesn't matter what it looks like, because all they needed to do at the end of this week was to chalk up a win, get a bill through—just ram it through, with whoever is willing to do a deal at the lowest price, the easiest price, the most convenient political price. And this is what it looks like today.

Mark my words: the Greens would not be supporting this legislation if indeed it was in any way good for industry, good for jobs or good for the things we need to bring down power prices in this country. They wouldn't be supporting it if it meant that there were laws that were making it easier for this country—as the Prime Minister says we need to—to access gas resources, to be able to get energy into the grid to support manufacturing, to support the tens of thousands of jobs in industries now at risk because of Labor's latest dodgy deal with the Greens. Why are they supporting it? Because they get their token wins—things that of course this government have supported, and said they supported, but have sold out on.

I do want to go back to a quote here, again, to talk about hypocrisy—the hypocrisy of the Australian Greens—and I wish my colleague Senator Hanson-Young were here to hear this, but she said in the committee hearing just last week: 'The people know it stinks. It absolutely stinks, and that's why it needs scrutiny.' That was what Senator Hanson-Young, the Greens' environment spokesperson, said of this legislation: 'It stinks,' and, 'It needs scrutiny.' It's, 'We will stand our ground, and we will make sure that the government does the right thing and has this full-on committee hearing all the way through to 24 March 2026.' It doesn't stink anymore, does it! It doesn't have the slightest stench of support for fossil fuel industries or for forestry. That's because they've gone and done this dodgy deal which actually cuts the guts out of the laws that were needed to ensure that we could do what this country needs when it comes to growing our economy and all of the other things necessary to deal with the crisis facing us.

Just on that, on housing, we know, from the evidence given at the Senate committee, that the laws, which have been made worse by this deal, were going to be difficult for the property industry to comply with. They were going to make it harder for greenfield housing estates to be brought online. The complicating factors around what is now before us, made worse by this deal with the Greens, mean this housing crisis this government is presiding over will not be dealt with any more quickly or any more easily—in fact, quite the opposite. It will be harder for people to build houses in this country. It will be harder for people to get into a house as a result. It will drive up prices because, as we know, the basic laws of economics—supply and demand—mean that, when you've got less supply because of a dodgy Labor-Greens deal, and demand is still being stimulated by all of these bunkum schemes this government runs, prices are going to go up and it is going to be harder to get into a house.

So here we are, ramming through this legislation—700-plus pages of laws and explanatory memoranda. There's a range of amendments—goodness knows how many; I haven't been able to count them yet—and, yes, there are some here from the coalition. But they're the ones, of course, the government would be aware of, because they're the ones we've gone to them with over the last few weeks and that we still haven't heard back from the government on.

This is not democracy at its best. These are dodgy deals at the end of a sitting, which is exactly what we saw at the end of last year. It's what we saw before the election. It's what we've seen a couple of times since the election. It's a hallmark of this brave new world we have in this parliament, where the Labor Party, finding it a bit difficult to be held to account for their legislation, turn to their friends down the end here.

And there is always a plus for the Greens. They are not resolute in their views. They can be bought off. They can be taken in for a price, and they have, once again. The price, sadly, is the people of Australia, who are struggling with power bills, who can't get into a house, who are finding it difficult to get or hold on to a job. These laws will do nothing to assist that. They will not be better for business. There are some mild wins in there—I'm surprised the Greens even went at them—but, honestly, this bill will not make things better, which is the ultimate test here. Will things be better for business and the environment? On both counts, sadly, I think we'll find that neither will be better off as a result of this dirty, dodgy deal.

On that, let's talk about being able to access the resources needed for stimulating supply when it comes to energy generation—gas and coal, which we rely on right now. Of course there's a transition underway, which this government is blindly pursuing at any cost, and the people paying the price are the people in the gallery and the people out there in the real world, whose power bills keep getting bigger and bigger. As we saw in the inflation data yesterday, there's been a 37 per cent increase in the last year alone. That's not good. Their policies aren't working, and I can tell you now: this deal is going to make it much worse. Under these laws, with Labor's deal with the Greens and the amendments that will no doubt be made, it is going to be harder to get a new gas project online. They'll champion that. They'll cheer for that. But what does that do for the supply of gas and therefore bringing down prices in a grid that is heavily reliant on gas now? It doesn't do anything good. It does only things that are bad, and that is what we are very upset about today.

We tried to make these bills much better than they were. We've expressed our concerns. We've operated in good faith with the government, but, instead, it was easier and quicker for the government to do a dodgy deal with the Greens, whatever the price. As I say, it's not just that people will now have higher power bills as a result. The people who work in institutions that rely on gas or other resources that will be harder to get out of the ground because of these laws—their jobs will now be more uncertain. Investors will now decide: Australia has suddenly become a bit harder to do business in; we'll do business somewhere else. Again, more jobs gone. Then there are the people of the forestry sector. Because of Labor selling out to the Greens today, to chalk up a win to get a bill through this parliament before the end of the year so they can all go out on a high—until they have to look forestry workers in the eye—the people of the forestry sector are the ones who have been sold out today. It is a sad day.

I hope that when the Greens speak to these bills today they can tell us what the price was. I think Australians deserve that. (Time expired)

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I stand in ardent support of the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025. This is a landmark reform. It's generational, a word we throw around too often, but it is truly generational in every sense of the word—not only for current generations but for future generations. Many of us came into this parliament, leaving behind jobs that were far easier, to be good ancestors. This is a true moment of being the good ancestors that we wish to be, that we aspire to be.

From the outset, I want to thank the Greens political party. I want to thank Senator Waters and Senator Hanson-Young for their collaboration and their leadership in supporting the passage of this bill. I know that, for many Greens supporters and, indeed, Labor supporters and advocates, we all care for nature. We love nature. We are nature. We are embedded in nature, and we recognise that. People across our political spectrum have spent a lifetime fighting for nature—years and years, decades and decades. This is meaningful reform for our nation and for this parliament, and it is vindication of those decades of work by stakeholders in the community, both on the Labor side and on the Greens side.

It is disappointing that we were unable to garner the support of the coalition, but the coalition, honestly, have departed the field on so many fronts. They style themselves as an alternative party of government, but I think their decision today not to support this landmark reform only underscores that they can no longer hold the mantle of being an alternative party of government. But they're not the story. The story today is about the environment.

This bill builds upon the work of the Samuel review. Professor Graeme Samuel is the architect of this bill. I want to thank him and the team that delivered the Samuel report five years ago, in 2020, under the then coalition government. That report laid it all out. It laid out the state of the environment. It was in a poor state of health and it was deteriorating, and there was a real sense of urgency in that report that we needed to get this work done. Professor Samuel presented evidence to us during the committee inquiry, and he laid it out for us that we just can't wait any longer—getting 80 per cent there is going to be good enough. It highlights the fact that passing landmark laws in this place always involves trade-offs. We know that the bill is not perfect, but perfect is the enemy of the good.

This is a whole lot better, light years better, than what we currently have, which has led to the destruction of our beautiful landscape and a list as long as my arm of threatened species, with 2,245 threatened species. Australia has this ignominious moniker of being the extinction capital of the world for mammals. How did we get here? We got here because we have had outdated environmental laws for the last 30 years. This is a moment now to completely recalibrate and to close those loopholes that have allowed our koalas and other precious little Australians to fall through the cracks.

How does the bill do that? It covers three pillars. The first is protecting and repairing nature. The second is cutting red tape so that we can address those national issues that are bearing down on us—things like housing and renewable energy, which is essential if we are to reduce our emissions and thereby truly act on climate change, which is the elephant in the room. Climate change is the No. 1 threat to biodiversity and to species in our country and in the world. Not talking about renewable energy means that you are not going to act on climate change, and indeed the coalition don't want to talk about climate change. They hate renewable energy and they also hate environmental reform. Today just confirms that. They have departed the field and abandoned Australia. In terms of the third pillar, this bill bakes in transparency and accountability. It does this with regard to the first pillar—protecting and repairing nature—by introducing national environmental standards. This is the first time ever that we're going to have clear legislative standards that spell out what is acceptable and what is not when it comes to matters of national environmental significance.

Right now the rules are opaque and, frankly, a bit too discretionary. They're very much dependent on who sits in the minister's chair. God forbid that one day we end up with a terrible government. One thing I have learned as a relatively new parliamentarian—I was elected only in 2022—is that, as much as we wrangle in this place to create good laws that will protect and conserve, no law is bullet proof. This is what I've learned: no piece of legislation is bullet proof against a bad government. I say this to the Australian people: ensure you do your homework when you go to that voting booth, because so much rides on the quality of the government of the day. With a terrible government, you end up with robodebt. With a good government that is here for the right reasons, you end up with a bill like this. You end up with generational reform, whether it be in Medicare, aged care, the NDIS or, now, the environment.

The standards will deliver certainty for business and a floor for protection for nature. The bill will introduce 'unacceptable impacts' for the first time. This is redline stuff—go/no go—where we ensure we're not developing or threatening World Heritage sites or Ramsar wetlands. It will also introduce a net gain approach. This is about repairing and restoring nature. It's saying that it's not good enough to just go to the minimum; we're saying you need to go beyond the minimum and start to repair nature and restore biodiversity. That is what we are seeking with this change.

The second pillar is of course about cutting red tape. Right now we have a system that is duplicative, achingly slow and often completely incoherent. We've had six different assessment pathways overlapping federal and state laws, and timelines that blow out. All of this bakes cost and delay into those pressing national issues that I outlined earlier. For example, with the housing affordability crisis, which is driven by a housing supply crisis, right now in Victoria there are 310,000 homes that are sitting on the back shelf, the backburner, unable to progress, because our environmental laws are broken. There is a type of dragon, a lizard, that may or may not be threatened by the building of these homes. We haven't been able to resolve this for 10 years. As a result, we don't have enough homes. That's what this means.

We have climate change bearing down on us. Australia is on the frontline of climate change, yet it takes between seven and 10 years to get wind farms up. That's completely unacceptable. We need clarity, business needs clarity, and so do the Australian people who put us here to get results. At every single ballot box, we are going to be judged on one thing only, and that is outcomes, so we need to deliver. If we say we want to have cleaner, greener energy, we need to deliver. If we say we want more housing, we actually need to deliver. This legislation enables that delivery.

This bill also introduces an accreditation system. What does that mean? Between the federal and state governments, there's too much duplication. You've got federal administration, and then you've got state administration. We are moving towards an accreditation scheme whereby we accredit the state governments around the country to do this kind of administrative paperwork and thereby cut the red tape. This will modernise these bilateral two-way agreements between the Commonwealth and state. This is how you also deliver productivity gains. Cutting red tape means speeding up approvals where appropriate and reducing cost. That reduction in cost will ultimately be passed on to the consumer, and that is a good thing. I'll be watching carefully to see how we can quantify that. Will homes become a little bit cheaper? Maybe. Let's see. Right now there is a lot of cost and delay baked into the system.

This bill also hardwires climate into the bill by forcing proponents to declare their scope 1 and 2 emissions. This means that the big matters will be forced to outline their emissions and their emissions reduction plans. It will not necessarily capture property developers and people who are trying to build housing. I just want to make that clear.

Interestingly—this is a really important point—this bill will also deliver certainty to those young Australians who are thinking of entering apprenticeships, whether they be in the electrical trades or in construction. We heard testimony about this a week or two ago. Right now young people who are aspiring to become sparkies are walking away because there isn't continuity of projects. There isn't a continuous pipeline of projects; it's coming in fits and starts. I speak, of course, of renewable energy projects and transmission bills. It's just too slow. We need 40,000 sparkies by 2030. It's not trivial. This is nation building. For us to attract 40,000, if not more, young Australians—men and women, I might add—into this high-demand, well-paid career, we need to ensure that the pipeline of delivery of renewable energy projects is full. This environmental reform will enable that to happen.

The final pillar is around accountability and transparency. We will be establishing, for the first time ever, a national environmental protection authority. This will be a watchdog with real teeth, and it comes with severe penalties. The last time I checked, the penalties were sitting at around $825 million. I'm not sure where the amendments will fall there, but that's a substantial amount of money if you do the wrong thing. And it shifts some of these regulatory functions away from the minister to the EPA—long overdue.

We'll also be installing the Environment Information Australia body. This is to ensure that we have data driven decision-making. Everyone—whether it be regulators, government, the Australian people, proponents—need data, and that data is disbursed and fragmented between three layers of jurisdictions: Commonwealth, federal and local. So the task of Environment Information Australia will be to collate that data so that decisions can be data driven, rather than based on a vibe.

I want to conclude by saying that Labor has a proud legacy in the environment space. It was a Labor government that, with Bob Brown and his advocacy years ago, saved the Franklin, passed World Heritage legislation and went on to protect Kakadu and the Daintree. And it was under Whitlam—what a visionary!—that we introduced Landcare. This Labor government also expanded our marine parks in the last term. I want to thank the current minister, Minister Watt, who builds on the work of Minister Plibersek, for delivering this landmark reform. I thank the Senate.

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

I rise today as a very proud environmental lawyer, having seen environmental laws for the last 25 years, written by John Howard, when he was Prime Minister, fail to deliver for nature and having seen all of the parameters of nature that we care about go backwards. I am so pleased that, after tough negotiations with the government, the Greens were able to secure some important improvements to this package, and I'll run through what they are. But this package is not everything that nature needs, and this package does not go anywhere near what we need on the climate crisis for meaningful protections for communities, for species, for all of us. This government is still clearly so in bed with the coal and gas industry that it makes me sick. This is the best we could get out of this government, and the job is not done. But this is a meaningful step forward on protections for forests, for land clearing and against the fast tracking of coal and gas.

The government's first version of this rewrite of our environmental laws would have fast tracked coal and gas to be approved within 30 days. It is 2025, and we are in a climate crisis. It is obscene that this government proposed that. Of course, they were hoping to get the coalition to agree on that, but the coalition are so in shambles and such absolute climate dinosaurs that they couldn't get their act together, which is good news for the climate because the Greens have been able to step in and stop that fast track, to stop coal and gas being approved within 30 days like this government wanted.

But the government wouldn't come at climate considerations being included in this piece of legislation, so there is still a gaping hole in these laws when it comes to climate. We will keep fighting every single day to hold this government to account on climate and to get the claws of the coal and gas industry out of our democracy—the fossil fuel subsidies, the fossil fuel donations, the underpayment of corporate tax, the free ride that the coal and gas companies continue to get out of this government just like they did out of the last.

As an environmental lawyer, I've looked in great detail at these amendments, and I am proud of what we have been able to improve in our federal environmental laws, something that I feel so very deeply and passionately about. The reason that I sought to be elected, as well as representing the interests of Queenslanders, nature and the community more broadly, was to fix these broken laws. They've been broken for 25 years. They're not completely fixed, but there are some meaningful steps forward that I am proud to be able to deliver, and I do so today. We have made it harder for fossil fuel corporations to wreck the environment, and we've secured new protections for native forests. We've secured protections against rampant land clearing right across the country and, in particular, in the catchment of the Great Barrier Reef, a place that I've passionately campaigned to protect through my professional life.

Those wins for native forests, the removal of that exemption from our environmental laws, are something that forest campaigners have worked for for decades. It is just ridiculous that forestry was completely exempt from environmental laws until today. The Greens have managed to remove that RFA exemption. Whilst that won't immediately end native forest logging, it is a serious blow to the logging industry. Within 18 months, those regional forest agreements will have to meet higher standards than they ever have before and logging operations everywhere will need to meet the new tests in these revised laws.

They will not be allowed to have unacceptable impacts. In particular, irreplaceable critical habitat will now no longer be able to be destroyed. That is an important step forward. I welcome the $300 million compensation package for those workers. Importantly, it's for the workers—not for the logging corporations, as Senator Duniam was inferring. That protection, that structural adjustment, for those workers is very welcome, and that is also an important sign that the writing is on the wall for this industry. People love our native forests, and they want them left standing. They want plantations to be where we source our wood needs from, and we can do that. This change will go a long way towards that.

We've also closed some of the loopholes for land clearing. Continuous use, something that was happening before the laws commenced, has been exempted from these laws for the last 25 years. What we've been able to achieve through our tough negotiations with government is that land clearing where the trees are more than 15 years old will no longer be able to use that continuous use exemption. That land clearing will now need to be subject to our federal environmental laws. That is a win. Obviously, it won't necessarily stop all of that land clearing, but it will bring it in for assessment, and it will be assessed against higher standards because we will have standards and those standards are now going to be higher than what the current laws are.

Importantly, in Great Barrier Reef catchments, we see that water quality is a huge problem with the reduced health of the reef. In order to help protect the reef and build resilience, we need to make sure that the land clearing in those catchments, that's just flooding the Great Barrier Reef with nutrients, pesticides and run-off—we need to try to keep those trees in particular in the ground for their own sake and for that of the reef as well. Importantly, we have secured additional protection for Great Barrier Reef catchments and for trees and shrubs around waterways within a set amount of 50 metres. That will effectively result in that clearing requiring federal environmental consideration. I really welcome that, particularly since we've got a coalition government in Queensland that doesn't give a rats about nature and is happy to see trees felled no matter where they are—reef catchment or not.

The other key point that I want to mention is the water trigger. When I first got elected to this place, back in 2011, I went into a meeting with the then Independent member for New England, Tony Windsor; and the then Greens leader and senator, Bob Brown, an incredible environmental icon—two incredibly decent humans. In that meeting, we proposed protecting water from coal and gas. Given that that was a minority parliament, we were able to get that protection.

As an environmental lawyer, I suggested to Tony and Bob that we make sure that that power be not able to be given back to states and territories, like can happen under our current laws. Keeping that water trigger in federal hands has been something that I have been very proud of ever since, and today we are still going keep that water trigger in federal hands. We are not going to see it in the states and territories. I flag the Northern Territory in particular, who just want to let the gas companies ride roughshod over First Nations rights and completely trash groundwater and climate. We are not going to let those criminals be in charge of protecting water from coal and gas, and this amendment to keep the water trigger in federal hand will do that. That is a significant comfort—that those years of effort and that protection will not be lessened.

One thing we were not able to get through these negotiations, which I will move a second reading amendment to fix, is to acknowledge that sovereignty was never ceded in this ancient country and that the principles of free, prior and informed consent should be codified in our nation's laws. We have a First Nations consultation standard due for release as part of the new infrastructure. That sounds positive, but my amendment asks that it reflect the principles of free, prior and informed consent. I move:

At the end of the motion, add ", but the Senate:

(a) notes that sovereignty was never ceded, and that free, prior and informed consent should be codified in our nation's laws; and

(b) calls on the Government to develop and release for public comment a National Environmental Standard on First Nations Consultation and Engagement that incorporates principles of free, prior and informed consent".

We didn't get everything we wanted in these negotiations, but new protections for native forests, protections for land everywhere and in particular in Great Barrier Reef catchments, stopping coal and gas being fast tracked within 30 days like the original bill proposed and retaining the water trigger in federal hands so that we can protect water from rapacious coal and gas corporations are a significant step forward for nature.

I'm also pleased that things like renewable energy and housing will be able to move more promptly through our assessment system. I note the former speaker suggested that this might even bring house prices down. You know what will bring down prices? Removing the property investor tax perks this and the last government are so wedded to. I'm sorry, but we don't see this as a fix for the housing crisis, folks. Sure, it will help. If you want to make homes more affordable, get rid of those property investor tax perks. They should never have been introduced in the first place.

Some other positive improvements that we've been able to secure include some fetters on ministerial discretion. At the moment, the minister has been able to tick off on any old destruction that he or she likes, even if it would have a significant impact on things the act is meant to protect. There was absolute carte blanche on what could be approved. That was never acceptable, and, of course, it led to virtually nothing ever being refused. It was essentially a tick and flick. What we've now been able to achieve is that unacceptable impacts cannot be approved. There is an extensive definition of what an unacceptable impact is, and, importantly, it includes that irreplaceable critical habitat can no longer be approved for destruction. That is very important. It's not enough, but it is very important, and it is a new protection that we don't currently have. Likewise, in the offsets rules that will come out, the Greens think offsets are absolute nonsense. They don't work. You can't offset nature; it's not a zero sum game. What we've been able to achieve is protection for critically endangered species and critically endangered ecological communities. Again, that is a new protection. There are finally some no-go zones, where irreplaceable critical habitat and habitat for critically endangered species and ecological communities now cannot be destroyed by the big corporations that want to destroy them. That is a good thing, and I'm proud of it.

I want to particularly thank the Greens environment spokesperson, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who will be speaking shortly for her tough negotiation and for delivering an outcome that I am proud of and that the Greens are proud to deliver today for nature and for the community. Were it not for Senator Hanson-Young's tenaciousness and persistence, we might be in a different situation today. We might be seeing the government doing a deal with the coalition to ram through fast-tracking for coal and gas within 30 days, with even less protection for nature and certainly no restrictions on native forest logging or land clearing, with the water trigger gone and with no fetters on ministerial discretion. It is chalk and cheese.

I'm pleased that the government finally realised that, if they were to have a shred of credibility, they could not deal with the climate deniers and the dinosaurs in the coalition. These folk are such a rabble, and they're so obsessed with who's leading them that they've forgotten that people want policy outcomes. They can't even organise a proverbial in a proverbial. The government has seen that the Greens are here as a responsible and firm but constructive party that will always push to get outcomes. Our price is quite high, and we are proud of that. We didn't get everything we wanted, but we have delivered improved protections for forests and land clearing. We have stopped coal and gas being fast-tracked with a 30-day approval period.

I do want to note that it's clear that this government is doing nowhere near enough on climate. We've got very low carbon pollution targets. We've seen 32 coal and gas projects approved by this government since they took office, five of those in this term of government. It was not even two weeks after they won the election that we saw the environment minister tick off on the southern hemisphere's biggest gas plant, the North West Shelf for Woodside, which I just visited two weeks ago. I saw the ancient rock art of Murujuga with traditional custodians, including Rae Cooper, who showed me 40,000- and 50,000-year-old rock art literally 100 metres away from a gas plant that has already been destroying and eroding that precious oldest living art gallery on the planet. This government didn't bat an eyelid. They didn't go and visit it themselves. The minister just ticked off on that destruction. So the climate fight continues. We will see you in the forests, on the blockade, and we will see you on the streets, demanding climate action. We will always fight to stop coal and gas companies running this parliament and fight for nature and a climate that will sustain us all, for people to have cheaper energy bills and to have their basic needs met.

Susan McDonald (Queensland, National Party, Shadow Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is an incredibly shameful day. It's shameful for democracy in this country—the guillotining of legislation that is so critical to the wellbeing of all Australians. It is shameful because of this dirty, rushed deal between the Greens and Labor.

I'm going to talk to you at length in the next 15 minutes about all the many reasons why I weep. I weep today for what this government, this very bad Labor government, is doing to Australians' rights to be heard. We are all elected to come here to represent people from right across this land, and instead Labor will shut those concerns down—real concerns of Australian farmers, people who put food on our table, and Australian foresters, who allow us to build our homes with the most renewable resource rather than import it from places that don't have our high standards. Instead of Australian fishermen being allowed to fish in our abundant seas, we're letting in illegal fishing. They are allowing Australian jobs, Australian well-paid jobs, that allow us to have the best lifestyle in the world, to be sent offshore. What does that leave us here? It leaves us with nothing.

We are on a pathway to being one of the poorest countries on earth. We are on a pathway to not being able to afford to protect our environment, because this government is ensuring, with this shameful deal with the Greens, that all of that is lost to us. Who wins? It's not Australians. It's not Australians who rely on farmers to grow their food, on foresters to grow their homes or on fishermen to produce our great fish. It's certainly not leaving us with the great jobs that mean that Australians could enjoy their environment. We are able to have environmental protections that are appropriate, but not this. Not this selling out of Australia into the future.

The Albanese Labor government has ensured that we can mark our calendar today. This is such a dark day. We've already had Mr Bowen sign an agreement with 24 other countries—not major economies of the world, not countries where people get to enjoy high standards of living and higher environmental protections. No. He signed a deal to see the end of two of Australia's biggest export industries, coal and gas. What the Greens fail to understand, and they fail to ever tell anybody, is it is these industries that fund must environmental activities in this country. They do baseline studies. They ensure that environmental scientists are employed in well-paid jobs. They study koalas and other habitats. That is what a great, effective, high-standard mining industry gives us, but under Minister Bowen, under the Greens, under Mr Albanese this will all stop because we are seeing an absolute exodus of mining and gas industry from this country.

The Greens will celebrate that. Labor will celebrate that. But if that's your job, what will you go and work in next? What well-paid job will you and your family go to next? I don't know what that is. What is it that will pay for us to have Medicare and the PBS and NDIS, and roads and schools and hospitals? Who pays for that? Well at the moment it is the billions of dollars that come in from these incredibly high-standard, sophisticated industries, which are our mining and gas sectors. What this government is doing with this anti-fossil-fuel rhetoric is to ensure that Australians don't get to enjoy that either. How long will it be before we're having to choose between being able to have those great programs and the most basic services that Australians deserve?

We have been negotiating hard with the government. The coalition has been going forward and seeking to explain the corners, the rough edges that this legislation brings. The most simple example I can give you is the definition of nuclear. It ties back to ARPANSA. This government is so obsessed with denying Australians the opportunity for nuclear energy that they have failed to allow these incredible export industries, which are so necessary to our modern way of life—critical minerals, rare-earth elements, bauxite and gallium all occur in radioactive ores, but under this legislation they will not go ahead. We have been trying to negotiate with the government, to point out that this legislation fails Australians. And even worse, it even fails the government's own agenda. Their own agenda to sign a critical metals deal with the US fails under this. It means Australians are denied the opportunity to be the beneficiaries of the abundant resources that we have in this country. We will not be able to benefit from that.

Let's think about who the winners from this legislation are because, to be clear, it's not the environment. It is absolutely not the environment. The winner is bigger government. It's more duplication of bureaucrats sitting in air-conditioned offices—powered mostly by coal and gas. They will be the beneficiaries. Lawyers will be the beneficiaries. Environmental lawyers, who relish and revel in tying up projects that would employ Australians and that would see us have more gas, more energy abundance in this country, will benefit. It's certainly not the environment. And it is certainly denying Australians, young Australians, the sort of certainty that has been promised, like some kind of nirvana, by those on the opposite side. There will not be faster housing approvals, not under this onerous, restrictive legislation. There will certainly not be cheaper houses, not under the higher cost of construction that this legislation will result in. It will certainly not result in lower costs of energy.

Australians are paying eyewatering costs of living at the moment, whether it be your electricity bill, your gas bill, the food on your table or the petrol in your car. All of those things cost more thanks to the Albanese Labor government's rushed renewables rollout, their incredibly onerous emissions reductions targets that are resulting in not better outcomes for Australians but just more taxes on the sort of businesses that employ Australians, certainly in the parts of the nation that I know so well. Labor's emissions reductions programs have cost Australian farmers, Australian foresters and Australian fishermen first and foremost. Ninety-five per cent of Australia's emissions reductions, which has been achieved at twice the rate of the rest of the world, has been at the cost of Australian farmers being able to do their jobs.

What else has it resulted in? It has resulted in the most incredible mental anguish and stress from farmers sitting around kitchen tables, poring over forms, attempting to get a bureaucrat on the phone but being told they're working from home today; maybe they can send an email to try and get clarity on this ridiculous, onerous legislation. This legislation is not about streamlining. It's not about reducing duplication. It's about doubling down: more agencies, more bureaucracies, less response to Australians who think that they deserve what we have enjoyed to date—a great quality of life, a prosperous nation that can afford to pay the bills and, at the same time, the sort of environment that we all enjoy going out into.

I want to touch on this outrageous deal that has been done with the Greens on continuous use. The NFF and farming groups across Australia came to me saying, 'We're so worried that the government will stop negotiating with you and will turn to the Greens.' Most of Australian food production comes from land that has been managed over hundreds of years. It has come from places like Tasmania and Victoria, the coastal parts of Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and New South Wales—well-managed country and a very small part of the country. Under Labor's goals, we have already lost seven million hectares of farming land. And under this, under Labor's emissions reductions and this legislation, it will fall by another five million hectares. What do you think that does to Australia's food security? We are seeing dairy farms where the cows are being sold off to the abattoir so that trees can be planted, and not trees that we're going to be able to use for housing. This is just denying Australians food security. It's denying Australian farmers the ability to do what they do best and most passionately. It is taking away the ability for Australians to feel secure in this uncertain time.

This is an incredibly shameless piece of legislation. It's a shameless process. I know that there are members of the government who say privately to me how ashamed they are of this process. Every year we see hundreds of pieces—I'm exaggerating—tens of pieces of legislation just guillotined, with no discussion, no debate, no opportunity for amendments and no opportunity for the coalition to hold this very bad, destructive government to account. This has got to stop, and the Greens have got to stop enabling it.

Today there was a statement from the Australian Energy Producers organisation. They've said that the Albanese government striking 'an agreement with the Greens on environmental law reform is a squandered opportunity to address the significant costs and delays in delivering gas to Australian consumers'. They say:

Carving gas out of streamlined reforms is simply not in the national interest. The deal will entrench slow approvals which will drive up energy costs, deter investment and further delay the new gas supply Australia urgently needs.

More than 5 million Australian households rely on natural gas, it is an essential input to manufacturing and is the reliable back-up that helps to keep the lights on as our electricity system transforms.

By conceding to the Greens, the Government has chosen more red tape and uncertainty instead of enabling new gas supply

I think this is an incredibly naive government, a government that thinks that investors don't have opportunities, that they can't go and invest in other countries like Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico or Qatar. All of these places are competing for Australian jobs, and the taxes that they would pay here could be used on Medicare, on the NDIS, on the PBS, on schools and roads and hospitals.

Mark your calendar today because today is the beginning of the end of the prosperity that Australians have enjoyed, where every generation has a better quality of life than the generation before. Under this government, the next generation—our children, our grandchildren—will have a lower standard of living than we have enjoyed. I didn't come to the Senate for that. I didn't come to be a part of the sort of economic destruction, environmental destruction that this government has overseen. This is going to make it harder for Australians, and the worst part is it's cloaked in slick environmental cuddly words to give Australians some sense of security that what has happened today is okay. But it is not okay what this Australian government is doing to Australians, not just today but for our future, when we are poor, and we are cold and we are hungry, because they could not resist the allure of caving to the Greens political party. I am ashamed. The committee will report on 24 March. We could have waited for that.

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese government is once again delivering on our commitments to the Australian people. By the end of this week, landmark environmental reforms will pass the parliament. For the first time, Australia will have a national environment protection agency. For the first time, Australia will have national environmental standards. We will deliver higher penalties for the most serious breaches of environmental law. We'll ensure that the rules for regional forest agreements comply with the same standards and rules for other industries, and we'll require proponents of large emitting projects to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and their emission reduction plans.

I congratulate the Prime Minister, the minister for the environment and the many others in this place who have helped to get us to this point. All of you are now part of Labor's transformative environmental legacy alongside Gough Whitlam and his government, who introduced Australia's first federal environment and heritage legislation, created the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and who recognised the land rights of Australia's First Peoples; alongside Bob Hawke and his Labor government, who saved the Franklin River, the Daintree and the Wet Tropics and who protected Antarctica from mining exploration; and alongside the governments of Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, who delivered the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and who kicked off investment in clean renewable energy. When we look at the long sweep of Australia's history, one thing is abundantly clear: transformative environment protection can only be delivered by Labor governments. It is delivered in partnership with community movements who argue for these steps, but it is delivered by Labor governments.

I want to pay tribute to all of the activists who have always understood this and who have worked so hard for so many years so a Labor government could pass a transformative bill like this one. I'm proud to have played my part in the formation of LEAN, the Labor Environment Action Network, who have campaigned also for these measures and backed them in. To those Labor members, I say: all of us here stand on your shoulders. This is a great day for Australia, a great day for our environment and a day that that you have played a critical part in bringing about.

Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on this very important piece of legislation, the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, and related bills. This is a piece of legislation that has been in the works for a very long time and one where, after sustained and tough negotiations with the government, we have managed to secure a better outcome for nature, with new protections for our native forests, our Australian bushland, and new protections for our endangered animals and other wildlife. Importantly, we have delivered a blow to the fossil fuel companies who want to keep polluting and putting our climate and our environment at risk. Today, with the amendments that the Greens have secured in relation to this piece of legislation, time is up. Time is up for native forest logging. The clock is ticking, and time is up.

Australians love our bush. They love our beautiful trees. They love our ancient forests. They know that these areas, so precious, so unique and so important, must be saved and protected. They know that these beautiful forests are the homes of our animals—of our little critters—and of our other wildlife. They know that if we continue to destroy our native forests—if the chainsaws and bulldozers continue rolling, chopping and destroying—that means the homes of these animals will be gone forever.

We didn't get everything we wanted in these negotiations. You never do. There's always give and take. But delivering a blow to the logging companies that want to continue to destroy our beautiful native forests is good. Delivering a blow to the bulldozers who want to continue to destroy our Australian bushland without even getting any sense of approval is good news. It's good for our bush and it's good for the climate. Delivering a blow to the fossil fuel companies who thought that they had it in the bag and that they were about to get their applications for new coal and new gas—expansion of pollution—fast-tracked and made easier, cheaper and faster is brilliant news.

You just need to see the reactions of people today to see what side of history people want to sit on when we're debating these issues. Do you know who's angry that the Greens have negotiated and got these outcomes, with new protections for our forests and wildlife, and have stopped coal and gas getting fast-tracked? Who's upset about this? The MCA, the fossil fuel industry, the big miners who want to keep polluting, and Australian Energy Producers, who thought they'd get a free ride, just cruise on in and get their mines passed and approved within 30 days. Uh-uh—not happening. They are furious that the Greens have stepped in to stop them getting a free ride. I say to the MCA and the other mining lobby, the big polluters: you got too cute, you got too cocky, and you assumed after years of donations and walking the halls of parliament that you ran this place. Well, you don't. You don't run it, and we are going to make sure you never do.

To those who are upset and angry that the Greens have put in place new protections for forests and our bushland, I say to you: time's up. We have to stop destroying our forests. They are the lungs of our planet. They are the homes of our wildlife. Those ancient trees do so much to keep the air clean, the soil healthy and our biodiversity rich. It is time to stop the chainsaws and the bulldozers. Of course we need a forestry industry. We need timber. Of course we do. But you don't need to be destroying native forests and putting them up the chip mill for Australia's timber needs. The spin and the squeals from the industry every time someone talks about transition is getting tired.

I grew up in the bush. I grew up in the native forests in Victoria. I know how hard people have worked for decades to put in place laws that simply say no to destroying our ancient forests that are the homes of our beautiful animals. I say to those campaigners: we wouldn't be here without you; we wouldn't have made this happen without you, but the war is not over and we will be with you as we save these forests. While we have managed to put in place laws that can protect and laws that give the minister of the day the ability to do his job as environment minister—no more excuses; no more, 'I'm not sure I can.' You've got the laws; use them. We will be standing with our forest activists, because the job is not done. But, boy, this is a blow. I say to the forest industry, and I say to those who want to continue to see our beautiful trees, the homes of our critically endangered animals, destroyed: time's up.

The package that the government has put on the table to help with the adjustment of these changes is welcome, but it must go to the workers. It's been the logging companies that have been pocketing hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds for decades. Taxpayers have been propping up an industry that has allowed the destruction of these forests for far too long. The workers know the transition needs to happen. The communities know. The politicians know. And boy, oh boy, don't the companies know it.

So the time is now. This is an opportunity for serious transition. We know that's not going to happen without the squeals of the industry. They're going to be doing everything they can over the next 18 months to make it harder, but we have put in place the laws that are required to protect these forests. I say to the minister: use them. Protect these ancient forests. Protect the lungs of this planet and make sure those bulldozers and those chainsaws really do stop.

We know that not everything in this place can be done at once. I fought the government tooth and nail on getting more protections for climate in this package. They refused to put the considerations of the climate damage that projects make as part of the process of assessing whether things should be given a green light. I think that that is just outrageous. I think it's dumb. I think it's short-sighted, and time will come for that to change. In this package there is, for the first time, at least the acceptance that climate pollution is damaging to the environment; companies will now be required to disclose what that damage is. That's a step forward, but I ask the minister and I ask the government: what is the point of getting the companies to disclose if you're not going to do something with that information? I couldn't get them over the line on that because they dug in. They refused to compromise. But I don't give up hope on that, because it's common sense. We now have, for the first time, climate in the bill, in the act, and that is good. We will hold this government to account.

We've stopped the fossil fuel companies getting an easier ride, a cheaper ride, a faster ride, and they're angry about it. The more angry they are, the better I feel. But the job is not done. This government has now had to pick a lane. They put this piece of legislation to the parliament. It was riddled with holes. It delivered everything that big business wanted, the big loggers wanted, the big miners wanted, that the industry groups all wanted. They thought it was so good for them that the coalition would just have to pass it. Well, I'll tell you what happened in the last couple of months. The coalition have proved themselves to be unfit for government. They have scrapped any shred of credibility on science, on climate, on the environment.

The government of the day had to pick a side. We had to fight hard to make sure we were in the right lane. I say to Labor that what has happened in this process is proof that if you want genuine environmental outcomes, outcomes for our climate, outcomes that are good for the community and not good just for the corporations, there is only one party in this place that can be trusted, and that's the Greens. That's why we have done this deal today. We have stood for outcomes for our environment and our communities, and we will keep doing that.

We will keep holding you to account because this rabble over this side doesn't give a toss about climate. They don't give a toss about the environment. They don't give a toss, it seems, about proper process and democracy, because they were going to be prepared to ram this bill through just for the interests of business. We're going to hear them squealing today about the Senate doing its job. We're doing it for nature. We're doing it for the community. We're doing it for all of those who have participated in this process for the last 25 years and who knew that these laws didn't work. But that side—you're going to hear them squeal and whinge all day because they couldn't deliver what the mining companies wanted.

Ellie Whiteaker (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is an historic day in our parliament, and I am so proud to be a part of this Labor government, which is delivering historic reform to our broken environmental laws. This parliament has a really clear choice to make over the next few hours: to keep the broken, outdated laws that fail the environment, that make it tougher for business and that slow down major projects, or to back a modern, balanced package of reform that delivers better protection for our environment and backs faster and clearer decisions for business.

This bill, the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, responds to Professor Graeme Samuel's independent review of the EPBC Act. It delivers on the core pillars of his recommendations, and it is well overdue. The bill reflects countless hours of advocacy and hard work from many environment groups, from Labor members and branches right across the country, many in my home state of Western Australia, from community stakeholders, from First Nations organisations and from industry. I want to thank every single one of those who spent time—not just in the lead-up to this bill but over many years—advocating for these reforms. We need laws that allow us to protect and restore our environment but also to build the housing we so desperately need in this country, to take us further down the path of a renewables transition and to deliver on our promise of a future made in Australia.

These laws deliver our country's first ever national environmental protection agency—a strong and independent agency that will have real teeth. It creates a definition of 'unacceptable impacts' so that clearly harmful projects can be stopped early. It strengthens penalties for serious breaches to deter wrongdoing and ensures that environmental harm is not treated as a cost of doing business. The bill also sets a more efficient and robust project assessment process to cut delays. It is estimated that this will save more than half a billion dollars across our economy, with the potential to save even more as the system matures. It allows states and territories to carry out assessments on behalf of the Commonwealth where they meet national standards, reducing duplication but maintaining a high bar for environmental approvals.

To those opposite, the Liberal and National parties, who are so furious and outraged by the decision that we will make in this parliament today, I say: you are to blame for your own irrelevance on this issue because you have taken away any scrap of credibility with the Australian public that you had. You have shown that you deny the science. You have certainly shown very little, if any, interest in actually protecting our environment. You stand in the way of our new housing projects. You stand in the way of our attempts to build the houses that we need. You stand in the way of our renewable energy rollout. You stand in the way of our Future Made in Australia agenda. And so I repeat: you are to blame for your own irrelevance on this issue. But today we will get the job done and we will pass long-overdue reforms, the first major overhaul of our environmental laws in more than 20 years, to protect our unique environment—what makes our country great. This is a balanced package that balances environmental protection and economic opportunity. It sets up our nation for the future.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and related bills. They are stronger than what Labor first put on the table, stronger because the Greens, backed by communities right across this country, who've been working for decades, joined and led this campaign. They're stronger because experts and advocates across the country refused to let them be written by big coal and gas, logging operations and lobbyists. But let's be absolutely clear: while we have secured important improvements for nature, this package of bills still fails. It fails to properly protect our climate.

Labor began this process with a wish list for corporate environmental destruction. Their first draft would have taken us backwards. It would have created a fast track for coal and gas, handed corporations new loopholes and locked in a system where approval came first and environmental protection was an afterthought. It was package of bills written for big corporations, not for people and not for country. The Greens said no. We held firm, and the community held firm with us. Because of that, we have won significant gains for our environment.

These bills now finally, after decades, end the special treatment for native forest logging. We've closed off the ability for coal and gas companies to use Labor's fast track pathways or to exploit the national interest loophole. These are real improvements. They take us forward and make these bills infinitely better than if Labor had done a deal with the climate deniers in the coalition.

But let me be equally direct: these significant but small wins for nature are not the wins we need for our precious climate. Labor have refused point-blank to include a climate trigger. They've refused to allow the environment minister to consider the climate damage of new coal and gas projects—dirty, polluting coal and gas projects—in this country. They've refused, despite overwhelming public support and strong evidence that our environment laws must confront the climate crisis head-on.

I come to this debate as a senator for Victoria, a state blessed with landscapes and species that deserve far more than incremental protection—the cool temperate forests of the Central Highlands, home to the precious Leadbeater's possum; Gippsland's forests, foothills, lakes and plains; the Victorian grassland earless dragon, rediscovered just recently on Wadawurrung country after being thought to be extinct; theburrunan dolphins of Port Phillip; and the superb fairywrens and bunjil, who often greet me on my return to Dja Dja Wurrung country, in Central Victoria, where I was born and raised. These are places and species worth fighting for. While these wonders of Victoria endure, they are under immense pressure. Their forests are still logged. Their habitats are still cleared. Their climate is still warming because Labor continues to approve new coal and gas.

I have seen the consequences elsewhere in this country, too. Just last week I was in Karratha, or Murujuga, a place of staggering beauty, where red cliffs cascade across the landscape and the world's oldest rock art watches on over country. Yet, just beyond that sacred landscape, that oldest art gallery in the world—40,000- to 50,000-year-old rock art—gas plants and fertiliser factories rise like a dystopian skyline, eroding the rock art and directly impacting First Nations communities and their country. What is Labor doing in the face of this destruction? Greenlighting new fossil fuel projects, extending the North West Shelf for 45 years and protecting not country but the profits of Woodside, Santos and BHP.

When I gave my first speech in this chamber, I said I didn't come here for incremental change. I came here to get big money out of politics, to stop the fossil fuel lobby writing our laws and to protect the places we love in Victoria but of course nationally and across this continent. That purpose continues to guide me today. The Greens have used every lever we have to make these laws less damaging and more protective. I'm really proud of that work, and I want to applaud my colleague Senator Hanson-Young and our Greens leader, Senator Larissa Waters, for the enormous work, alongside our community, that they have put into making these laws something that will go some way towards protecting our precious forests.

Going into this, the fact that the Labor Party was willing to negotiate with either the climate deniers on the coalition side or the Greens really demonstrates why people are feeling like they don't know what this government stands for. I'm really glad and really proud that we have done this deal, because I think the alternative is unfathomable. The idea of new so-called environment laws coming into play that would fast-track new polluting fossil fuel projects through a 30-day window—we simply could not let that happen, and you cannot describe something as an 'environmental law' if it is speeding up fossil fuel projects.

As I said, the Greens have used every lever we have to make these laws less damaging and more protective. But, until climate is at the heart of our environmental laws, until coal and gas are rapidly phased out and until fossil fuel corporations are removed from the decision-making table, our work is far from done. We acknowledge that. We acknowledge the giant shoulders that we stand on and the huge volunteer and member groups across this country who roll up their sleeves—week in, week out—to fight to protect nature and to fight to protect our beautiful and precious forests, our ecosystems and the species that are just careering towards extinctions at a devastating rate. The ENGOs, the environmental non-government organisations, are working across this country to protect our waterways, to protect our soil and to protect these important carbon sinks.

To our First Nations elders and communities who continue to fight for country up against massive vested interests every single day, I want to thank you for your tireless advocacy and efforts and reassure you that we stand beside you every single step of the way. We know that this isn't done yet. We know that we've got a really long way to go. To everyone fighting to protect land, water, culture and climate from Murujuga to East Gippsland, thank you. We won't stop until our laws defend the planet, not the polluters destroying it.

Matt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I realise that I've only got a minute to discuss this very important bill that is before this place, the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025. This is a wasted opportunity for this government to finally deal with the impasses that businesses and projects are facing right across this country, particularly in my home state of Western Australia. What we have seen is the Albanese government look in the face of Western Australians and say: 'Too bad. You're not going to get the projects that you need for your prosperity.' He's done a deal with the Greens, a deal that we don't even know the details of, and we're about to guillotine this debate when we don't even know exactly what these amendments are.

It is absolutely appalling. It is appalling for the Premier of Western Australia to call on this government and this parliament to pass these laws when we couldn't possibly even have a test of what 'unacceptable impacts' is going to mean. We couldn't possibly know what this is actually going to do, because we have not had the time to review this legislation and test with industry what is required. It is unacceptable that this is happening right here, right now. Every single person in this place, particularly on that side and particularly my Western Australian colleagues, should hang their heads in shame. (Time expired)