Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Reconsiderations) Bill 2025
Senator McALLISTER (New South Wales—Minister for Emergency Management and Minister for Cities) (21:14): I thank senators for their contribution to the debate. Labor is committed to fixing our environment laws so that they work better for our environment and better for business. That means that our laws need to improve nature and protect our unique native plants and animals, but our laws also need to be less bureaucratic.
Our laws need to provide more certainty for business and more certainty for the communities that benefit from business activity. That is what the community expects, and that is what we're delivering as a government. We do this in commonsense ways that support communities and protect the environment.
Everybody agrees that the current laws don't work. We came to government saying that we would fix them and that we would improve certainty for business—the kind of certainty that helps drive investment in jobs, communities and nation-building projects—and that is what we are doing. We also said that we wanted a country in which nature is being repaired and is regenerating rather than continuing to decline, and that is what we are doing.
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Reconsiderations) Bill 2025 would address a critical problem in our current laws. It's a problem that puts jobs, investment and individual livelihoods at risk. This bill would support the government's commitment to provide certainty, clarity and fairness for ongoing industries, workers and communities affected by the reconsideration of certain decisions under the EPBC Act.
The bill would remove the ability of the minister for the environment to reconsider a past decision on an action that meets certain criteria. Reconsideration powers have been available to the minister since the beginning of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act a quarter of a century ago. These powers exist to enable the minister to respond to a limited range of circumstances based on new and changing environmental information, and this is important.
But these powers can create considerable uncertainty and affect communities that have come to depend on a lifeline industry. The economic and social impacts of changing a decision can be significant, putting jobs, community and individual livelihoods at risk. The bill recognises that established and lawfully operating projects where proponents did the right thing and referred their action to the environment minister and where those proponents have been investing and operating for five or more years on the basis of that decision should not be put at risk.
This bill would only capture a small subset of decisions that can be reconsidered. The technical language is that these are 'not a controlled action—particular manner' decisions, or NCA-PM decisions; these decisions are made when the minister decides that an action does not require approval because the action would be undertaken in the particular manner described.
The bill would also recognise the important role that states and territories play in managing environmental impacts through their own plans, policies and laws. The amendment specifies that a project must have a state or territory management arrangement specified in its particular manner to meet the criteria. In the context of this debate, many in this chamber have raised Macquarie Harbour, and it is certainly the case that discussion about Macquarie Harbour has illuminated the challenges that are present in the existing act.
The industries, communities and environments like those in Macquarie Harbour present a really useful example. Given the discussion that has taken place about Macquarie Harbour, I want to make the following factual points about the approach the government is taking to the conservation issues that are doubtless present in Macquarie Harbour, particularly in relation to the maugean skate.
We have invested $37½ million in priority conservation actions for the maugean skate population in Macquarie Harbour. These are investments to improve water quality and environmental conditions within Macquarie Harbour and to support critical species conservation actions, including a successful captive breeding program. We're also actively working with salmon industry stakeholders on further steps that can be taken to protect the environment and ensure the industry has a sustainable and long-term future producing salmon.
The Australian government is committed to working in partnership with industry, communities and states and territories to protect our environment and support the conservation and recovery of our threatened species. We've invested more than $500 million in targeted threatened species recovery, including under the Saving Native Species Program, the Natural Heritage Trust and the National Environmental Science Program.
This is complemented by other government investments for Ramsar wetlands, World Heritage properties and protected areas that support biodiversity conservation and the recovery of threatened species. This bill strikes a balance between the important task of protecting our environment and the need to provide certainty and stability to businesses which have already made a substantial investment to get a project up and running and, most importantly, a project which supports jobs.
This is sensible and balanced regulation. The proposed changes would commence the day after royal assent and would apply to any reconsideration decision made under section 78 after the amendment commences, regardless of how long ago the original decision was made. I commend the bill to the chamber.
The PRESIDENT: I advise that there are four second reading amendments. I'm going to first deal with the second reading amendment as moved by Senator Duniam. The question is that the amendment moved by Senator Duniam be agreed to.