Interview with Patricia Karvelas, Afternoon Briefing, ABC News

PATRICIA KARVELAS, HOST: For the Federal Government’s view I want to bring Environment Minister, Murray Watt. Welcome to the program. MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Hi, Patricia.

Good to see you again. PATRICIA KARVELAS: Good to see you too. The Federal Opposition says Australia does need to have an honest discussion about the situation in town camps following the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby.

As you’ve heard, Jacinta Nampijnpa Price says there’s been a reluctance to speak plainly about the conditions of these camps. Do we need to talk about the safety of Aboriginal children in these camps? MURRAY WATT: Well, Patricia, as you’ve heard from a number of First Nations leaders, including in Alice Springs, today is not the day for people to be seeking to make political mileage out of what is an absolutely terrible incident in the Northern Territory.

I’ve seen reports today that the family members of Kumanjayi Little Baby have asked for today to be a day of respect, without people trying to make heroes of themselves on social media, was what the family was saying. So, I don’t think today is the day for politicians of whatever party to be trying to capitalise on this politically. It’s a terrible day for the family concerned, for the whole Alice Springs community, and I think that's where our thoughts should be at the moment, along with just trying to do everything we can to ensure that there's calm in the community going forward.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Yeah, there's no doubt that has to obviously be an immediate priority in a family who’s grieving, and there is a child that's been murdered which is something that I think, as a nation, we are grappling with because it's so unthinkable. But any decent country has to examine how something like that could happen. Is there going to be a moment where the Federal Government does step in and say, yes, we will be involved in a broader investigation - beyond the coronial inquiry and all of those things that must happen - to investigate the systemic failures here?

MURRAY WATT: Look, I think that there will obviously be a time for a range of matters to be considered around the circumstances that people face in Alice Springs. Of course, our Government has made significant investments, and not just financial, in the situation in Alice Springs and the Northern Territory over a long period of time. You know, I know that my colleagues Malarndirri McCarthy and Marion Scrymgour have been on the ground today and in recent days in Alice Springs to work with the local community there - that's what we need to be focusing on at the moment.

And I think there will obviously come a time for broader questions to be considered. You know, Selena Uibo, the Northern Territory Opposition Leader, has raised the point about the justice system in general in the Northern Territory. You know, there will come a time for those sorts of things to be considered.

But I think we all owe it to the family of Kumanjayi Little Baby to go with what they've asked, which is for respect to be shown and for sorry business to be able have an opportunity to occur. PATRICIA KARVELAS: And then after that you do think that those broader conversations should happen, including obviously town camps? Which, can I say, as you know, is very much the Federal Government's remit, given the Northern Territory is a territory and the Commonwealth really does invest a lot of money when it comes to funding for town camps?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, look, I'm certainly not going to be committing the Federal Government today to any particular action in response to what has been an absolute tragedy for this community and for this family. But of course, I'm sure that there will come a time when there are a range of issues considered and reconsidered. Sadly, some of these issues that we continue to see in these communities are not necessarily new issues.

But as I say, I don't think today's the day for anyone in politics to be trying to capitalise on it, and we should be just very respectful of the family and the community concerned. PATRICIA KARVELAS: Just moving to your portfolio. Yesterday you announced the first of the National Environmental Standards.

When will we see them enacted? MURRAY WATT: Yeah. So, we're making very good progress, PK, when it comes to the implementation of the EPBC reforms.

Understandably, there's a lot of other news in the cycle at the moment, so we haven't necessarily been doing a lot in the public domain. But a lot going on behind closed doors to progress the implementation of those historic reforms that passed the Parliament at the end of last year. You're right, yesterday we released for the second time, for a second round of consultation, the first draft national environmental standard that will underpin these reforms, and we expect to be releasing more for consultation in the coming weeks.

And that also comes on the back of the announcement the Prime Minister made this week to provide $45 million in funding to support the negotiation of agreements between ourselves and state governments to really speed up assessment and approval timeframes when it comes to major projects across the country. In terms of when they'll commence, basically the way the standards work is they are regulations, so they are subordinate legislation.

They will be created by me as the Minister. And what we've done in releasing this first standard for consultation is that there's a statutory requirement for 20 business days of consultation. We will then, of course, consider the feedback that we receive, and then we will come out with a final version that I will create.

But look, we would certainly expect to see some of those standards finalised by 1 July, which is when we see the new National Environmental Protection Agency take effect as well. PATRICIA KARVELAS: And you say some. You don't think the whole project will be complete?

MURRAY WATT: Well, look, I think that we'll find that National Environmental Standards will continue to be produced, not just over the next few months, but as the years roll on. Because new issues will come to light that we need to set those sorts of expectations around how we protect the environment, while also speeding up the kind of timeframes for approval and assessment of housing projects, energy projects, minerals projects.

And you'll remember that they were the twin aims of these reforms, was stronger environmental protections and faster and simpler processes to assess and approve those housing, energy, and minerals projects that we desperately need. So I think what we've said is that there will be a first batch of these standards. We've been working very heavily on four.

This is the first one regarding Matters of National Environmental Significance. Very soon, we expect to release for consultation another standard regarding environmental offsets. There are two others that we have well underway, and we expect to get out in the next few weeks.

But as I say - PATRICIA KARVELAS: And what are they? What are they on? MURRAY WATT: They concern the sort of data and information that proponents need to provide to a company, their applications for environmental assessments and approvals.

And the second one is around community engagement as well. So they're the first four that we expect to see out of the block. But as I say, I suspect that there'll be different issues that emerge over time and we'll need standards as well.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: The new Act was meant to simplify approvals, but you're still having to do these agreements state by state. It seems like it's very much still a work in progress. How different will those agreements be across the country?

MURRAY WATT: Look, there's no doubt that these reforms are a work in progress. I mean, simply passing the legislation, as difficult as that was - you know, the country hadn't been able to do that for 25 years - but of course, we still need to do a lot of work in the implementation of those reforms. All of the amendments that we passed last year in those reforms will commence by December this year, if not brought into effect earlier.

Some of those amendments are already up and running, for example, the changes that we made to regulate at the federal level agricultural land clearing. But more and more of those amendments will come online over the course of this year. The bilateral agreements, you may have seen last week I was in Perth signing an MOU with the Western Australian Premier, Roger Cook, committing us to sign a bilateral assessments agreement by the end of this year.

And just very briefly, what the importance of that is that this is all about removing the duplication that we see in the system at the moment. Currently, if a project is going to trigger an environmental matter that's protected by the Commonwealth Government, that project needs to go through a state government assessment and approval process and then federal as well, dragging out the process.

This is about empowering a state government to do both assessments or both approvals at the same time, but subject to Commonwealth National Environmental Standards and with continuing oversight by the Commonwealth to make sure environmental standards are maintained. So it's about getting on with it, making sure we protect the environment, but speeding up these processes as well.

PATRICIA KARVELAS: Minister, Australia has been briefed by the US on a request to assist in the opening of the Straits of Hormuz - this is post-conflict. Australia has committed to be part of these discussions. What are your criteria for involvement in a Trump Administration plan like this?

MURRAY WATT: As a humble Environment Minister, PK - PATRICIA KARVELAS: You are in the Cabinet. You're senior. MURRAY WATT: Well, yeah, I'm obviously not the minister directly responsible for this, PK, so I'm not going to speak out of turn about that.

But we have made clear today, both through the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister, that we are in discussions with a range of countries - the UK, France, the US as well - around proposals and options. We have a very strong interest in seeing the Strait of Hormuz open permanently. Of course, all Australians have been feeling the pain of the Strait of Hormuz being closed, so we've got a very strong interest economically and from a cost of living perspective in seeing that reopened.

We will consider the kind of requests that are made to us, but it’s- PATRICIA KARVELAS : So, you're saying it's in our interest, it's in our economic interest, to be part of this? MURRAY WATT: No, no. What I'm saying is it's in our economic interest to see the Strait of Hormuz open permanently and we will, of course, consider proposals that come to us that involve seeing that occur.

Those discussions are now underway with those countries, but it's not for me to sort of set the criteria that we want to meet or set tests for that kind of thing. Other ministers will be able to do that for you. PATRICIA KARVELAS: Yeah, fair enough.

Thank you so much for joining us. MURRAY WATT: No worries. We acknowledge the Traditional Owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.

We pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.