Speech to the Australian Land Conservation Alliance Conference

*** Check Against Delivery *** It’s a pleasure to join you in person today for your 2026 Conference. I’d like to start by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of Nipaluna, the Muwinina people, and pay my respects to elders past, present. I’d also like to acknowledge the Chair of ALCA Vic Marles as well as other members of the ALCA board who are here today, as well as Jody Gunn the CEO.

I also want to acknowledge that I’m in a room of people who share my and the Albanese Government’s commitment to protect Australia’s precious natural environment. INTRODUCTION Australians are custodians of some of the world’s most special, and unique, plants, animals and other species. Protecting – and restoring – that biodiversity matters.

It matters to those species, to our climate, to our health and wellbeing, to our economy, to First Nations culture and to our national identity, as a country that loves the bush. The diversity of expertise within this room alone demonstrates the breadth of effort needed to protect these places, and these species, into the future. As an example, our National Reserve System is made up of a patchwork of government reserves, Indigenous Protected Areas and ecosystems protected by private land holders.

Governments are working hard to protect public land, but our national parks only account for just over 5 per cent of our total landmass. Meanwhile up to 90 per cent of Australia’s threatened species are wholly or partly found on private land, which accounts for over 60 per cent of our landmass. Conservation of private land helps to protect critical habitat, improve landscape connectivity and strengthen ecosystem resilience.

So it’s crucial that we continue to find new ways to support this effort. Today, I’d like to take you through some of the steps the Albanese Government is taking to boost nature protection, on public and private land alike, and also outline some of the opportunities for your members and private citizens to contribute to that effort. Most of you would be aware of our Government’s overarching Strategy for Nature which, in line with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, commits us to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, putting nature on a path to recovery.

A key target in the Strategy, adopted by Federal, state and territory governments, is to protect and conserve 30 per cent of Australia’s land mass by the year 2030. I’m pleased to say we are making good progress towards reaching that target. Recently, we surpassed 25 per cent – an area larger than Queensland - and up from 22 per cent when we were first elected.

We now need to protect another 34 million hectares to reach 30 per cent, by the end of the decade. Getting there won’t be easy and it will require action across all forms of land, and strong partnerships between governments, First Nations people, conservation organisations and private landholders. I want to recognise the contribution made by your members, who collectively influence biodiversity outcomes across 9.3 per cent of our landmass – almost a third of our 2030 target.

So far you’ve helped us to secure long-term protection and stewardship across some of our most important landscapes, including rainforests, arid woodlands and artesian spring ecosystems. And I know there’s more to come. The fact is, that with the majority of Australia’s landmass in private hands, we simply won’t achieve our 30 by 30 target without the participation of private landholders.

INVESTING IN OUR ENVIRONMENT Private and philanthropic investment is an important contributor towards land conservation, but our Government also understands our leadership role in reaching our ambitious targets. That’s why the Albanese Government has undertaken significant policy change and committed more than $500 million to help achieve our 30 by 30 target on land.

This includes $250 million through the Australian Bushland Program. More than $230 million through the Indigenous Protected Areas program. And $25 million under the Protecting Important Biodiversity Areas program.

This program is helping us expand critical habitat in some of Australia's most important landscapes. That includes on private land here in Tasmania, helping to protect habitat for the giant freshwater crayfish, Tasmanian devil and swift parrot. Or in nature refuges in Far North Queensland, where you’ll find the state’s floral emblem, the Cooktown Orchid.

These projects - in cooperation with state governments, philanthropic organisations and private landholders – are helping us to secure areas that might otherwise remain unprotected. The Australian Bushland Program is building on this success, including by contributing funding to help buy and protect strategic parcels of land with high biodiversity value. In late June, we opened an expression of interest process to find purchasing partners who will buy high-value land from willing sellers and shortlisting is now underway.

I recognise there is a lot of interest in this process inside this room and we hope to have more to say on this before too long. A further component of the program is to partner with state and territory governments to expand, and better manage, protected and conserved areas, with close to $100 million committed to 12 new land conservation projects across the country.

This will allow us to protect and conserve between one to two million additional hectares of land – an area approaching the size of Kakadu National Park. We’re making good progress on this, including an agreement with the New South Wales Government to jointly invest $50 million over five years to expand protected areas across public and private land in NSW. This investment supports new private land conservation agreements and the acquisition of high-priority conservation properties across New South Wales.

Today, I’m very pleased to announce that we’ve just made the first such joint purchase, of Pulgamurtie Station in western NSW. Located 235 kilometres north-east of Broken Hill, Pulgamurtie Station will be absorbed into the New South Wales national parks estate. Rich in Aboriginal cultural heritage, it will protect more than 74,000 hectares of outback landscape, providing a home to more than 70 threatened species including the iconic brolga, pink cockatoo and slender darling pea.

Its most extraordinary features are two striking pink lakes, along with sweeping outback plains, rolling sand dunes and thriving wetlands. Having completed the first such purchase, we will continue to work with states and territories to identify more projects that contribute to our protection targets. EXPANDING INDIGENOUS PROTECTED AREAS Another component of the Australian Bushland Program is to expand the Indigenous Protected Areas (IPA) program, to support First Nations-led protection of land.

The IPA program is something I’m incredibly proud of, and something I was privileged to see in action a couple of weeks ago in northeast Arnhem Land. It’s been a key pillar in our progress towards 30 by 30, with its protection of land making up more than 55 per cent of our National Reserve System. And just as importantly, this program supports First Nations people to care for Country like they have done for tens of thousands of years.

Since 1997, more than 96 IPAs have been dedicated across Australia. And we’re continuing to work with Traditional Owners to announce more protected areas in all corners of the country, with more to come soon. RESTORING NATURE Of course, to secure the future of our biodiversity, we don’t just need to protect and conserve land.

We also need to restore what has been degraded. That principle underpins our government’s world-leading Nature Repair Market. As you know, there is growing interest globally in investing in nature repair, driven by an uptake of corporate climate and nature-related reporting and disclosures, and carbon market participants seeking verified biodiversity co-benefits.

Our national, legislated biodiversity market established last year positions Australia to take advantage of this interest, delivering transparent, evidence-based outcomes for nature. It enables landholders, First Nations people and conservation groups to attract private investment in nature repair activities. Proponents may be issued with a biodiversity certificate once a project’s biodiversity outcome is likely to be achieved.

They can partner with investors to help with upfront project costs or sell biodiversity certificates to interested buyers. Importantly, projects can be stacked with carbon projects under the Australian Carbon Credit Units Scheme. The alignment of the two schemes is a priority for the Government and highlights our commitment to both nature and climate solutions that support environmental and economic resilience.

We understand the strong connection between nature and climate, something I know forms the theme of this conference. It is crystal clear that nature protection and restoration is central to the carbon removal that will be required to achieve net zero. So it’s good to see the Nature Repair Market starting to gain traction, with the third project – the Nortongong Biodiversity Restoration Project in central-west NSW – registered last week.

With a fourth expected to be registered in coming days. In addition, as part of our reforms to the EPBC Act last year, the Nature Repair Market can now also supply environmental offsets, if specified in a method. We expect that to stimulate demand for the market, while also ensuring greater rigour around offsets.

All projects currently registered under the market are using the first method to replant a mix of native species on cleared land, improving biodiversity and increasing ecological connectivity. Land managers will also soon be able to participate in the Enhancing Native Vegetation method under the market. This will support projects that enhance biodiversity in areas with existing native vegetation.

Work is underway on the proposed Protect and Conserve method, which is expected to be available next year. My department has partnered with ALCA and others at this conference to develop this method and I thank you for your efforts. NATIONAL NATURE RESTORATION FRAMEWORK It’s reassuring that the need for environmental restoration is accepted across Federal, State and Territory Governments, but we need to be strategic with our efforts.

That’s why Environment Ministers recently agreed to develop a new National Nature Restoration Framework, to be finalised in the first half of next year. This framework will give us, for the first time, a nationally coordinated approach to identifying where restoration can make the biggest difference. And it will be underpinned by three key principles around what we prioritise.

First, areas where native ecosystems and associated functions and services are able to be recovered or improved. Second, areas where restoration can increase or improve important habitat for threatened species and ecological communities, particularly under a changing climate. Third, areas where restoration can increase landscape connectivity and function for biodiversity.

Importantly, this is not about imposing a one-size-fits-all approach. The national principles we have agreed are deliberately broad, so they can be applied by jurisdictions, Traditional Owners, communities, landholders and organisations in ways that make sense on the ground. REFORMING OUR NATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS Supporting nature restoration is also a key objective of what has been my major priority since taking on this role close to 18 months ago - reforming Australia’s national environmental laws.

Those reforms were desperately needed to drive long-lasting change, to strengthen protections for our precious natural environment and to assist with its restoration. In particular, the reforms support better landscape scale decision making. They will support the greater use of bioregional planning, including through the development of regulatory plans, which will see us work with other levels of government, industry, scientists and communities to determine areas of high and low environmental value within a region.

In doing so, we can prevent or limit development occurring in areas of high environmental value and provide faster approvals for projects in areas of low value. This kind of planning also helps guide government and private investment in environmental restoration and conservation. This could include taking a holistic look at where we could connect wildlife corridors and where we could support restoration at scale, instead of the existing offsets patchwork.

We are currently working with states and territories on priority areas for new bioregional plans, supported by funding we received in this year’s Budget, and I anticipate I’ll have more to say on that in the near future. It’s been a busy year implementing the EPBC reforms and we’re tracking well. Australia’s first ever National Environmental Protection Agency opened its doors on 1 July, bringing a new level of transparency and independence to environmental decision-making.

Two tranches of the amendments made last year have now commenced, with the remainder to commence no later than 1 December. In August, I made the first four National Environmental Standards under the landmark reforms, including the Standard for Matters of National Environmental Significance and the Standard for Environmental Offsets. Standards – never seen before in Australia - will provide clear, consistent benchmarks for environmental decision-making, strengthening environmental protection and giving more certainty to project proponents.

A key focus for the reforms has been the strengthening of the offsets regime, including through a historic shift from delivering ‘no net loss’ to the environment, to now delivering ‘net gain’ for the environment. This is critical to achieving the goal of restoring nature and will ensure offsets more than compensate for any environmental damage that cannot be avoided, mitigated or repaired.

We acknowledge that this is not something that will be easy to achieve – both in practice for proponents and in outcomes for nature. That’s why to support this change, we are providing more flexibility and more options in how proponents can offset their impact and meet the net gain requirement. For example, we are in the midst of establishing a new Restoration Contributions Holder scheme, which will allow proponents to, in certain circumstances, make financial payments to acquit their offset liability.

These funds will then be used to deliver strategic offsetting projects that deliver a net gain for the environment, with potential for partnerships with private landholders and land management organisations. The funds will be managed by an independent statutory office – the Restoration Contribution Holder – with legislated requirements on how those funds are to be used, and which learn the lessons from existing state schemes.

The Holder will be supported by a new statutory advisory committee to ensure that how we deliver the strategic offsetting projects is informed by the best possible advice. We have recently closed EOIs for that committee and will soon be finalising its membership. A key piece of work currently underway is finalising the methodology for calculating restoration contribution payments.

Consultation on the proposed Restoration Contributions Calculator methodology closes on 14 October 2026 and I’d encourage people to contribute if they can. It’s a piece of work which underpins how we will deliver on net gain, while ensuring that we are getting a productivity and efficiency benefit. As you can see, there is an awful lot happening when it comes to protecting and restoring nature in our country.

That work is happening within government and outside, including in organisations like yours. And while I know the pace of this work can be taxing, we have no time to waste. Because there is so much at stake.

We know that nature continues to face significant threats, especially climate change. And we know that protecting and restoring nature can help us deal with climate change and other threats. I was inspired recently, reading David Attenborough’s wonderful book, “A Life on Our Planet”, in which he again made clear his love for the natural world and his anguish at its decline over his 100 years.

But in typical Attenborough style, he remains optimistic, inspiring us to take action, including by achieving the global 30 by 30 target. He reminds us that achieving it is not simply about protecting more land on a map. It is about passing a healthier, more resilient natural environment on to future generations.

One that adapts, and is more resilient, to the impacts of climate change. We know that governments cannot do this work alone. Success relies on our partnerships with First Nations people, private landholders, conservation organisations, philanthropists, industry and the communities on the ground.

That is why the work you do within your alliance is so important. Through your stewardship, innovation and commitment, you are helping to protect some of the most important places in our country. While demonstrating that conservation outcomes can be achieved through collaboration and shared responsibility.

We are proud to be working alongside you through several programs around Australia. We have made strong progress towards our ambitious targets. And together, we can build on that legacy well beyond 2030.

Thank you for the work you do every day to protect and restore Australia's natural environment. And enjoy the rest of the conference. 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.