National Environmental Protection Agency Bill 2025

Ms BELL (Moncrieff) (15:28): Thank you for the opportunity to speak to this bill and to this set of bills. I wasn't able to speak on consideration in detail on this bill before the House, because the government shut me down. I'm not going to get the opportunity to ask the minister representing the minister for the environment the long list of questions that I had to ask.

And now I'm going to be allowed just a couple of minutes to say why we do not agree with these bills in their current form. I understand I'm speaking to a bill around administration that is linked to the reform bill. I understand the procedure and that we are speaking to the amendment.

But what I would like to do is highlight the difficulties with this bill from the opposition's point of view. I have stakeholders on both sides—on the conservation side and on business, industry and productivity—coming to me saying that this is not workable for them. And what I would like to put to the House and to Australians across the country is that the coalition has been shut down time and time again today when we've been trying to talk about the flaws in this group of bills.

I want to talk to the environmental protection authority, which will now have sweeping powers. It'll have a CEO that will not be able to be fired by the minister. If the CEO of the EPA is not performing very well, there will be no scrutiny from the minister.

There are some other problems with this bill. Unacceptable impacts in the bills— The SPEAKER: I'm sorry to interrupt the member for Moncrieff, but this amendment is very prescriptive regarding registrable decisions. It's not a general debate.

The member for Wentworth has moved her specific amendment, which is about 20A, publication of reasons. It's not a general debate, I'm sorry to inform you; it'll have to be about what is before the House, and the question I've stated is specifically about the member's amendment. It's very technical.

Ms BELL: I understand, thank you, that amendment and how technical it is. There are very many technicalities in these bills. There are technicalities in all of the bills.

There are administrative bills. There are seven bills in total, in fact, and the coalition hasn't had the opportunity to speak even to the reform bill in the House, apart from the second reading debate. There are many technicalities in this bill, covering many areas of problems.

The EPA, the unacceptable impacts, the net gain and the streamlined pathways are all technicalities in this bill that need to be addressed. Judging by its shutdown that we've seen today of democratic debate, this is not a government that looks like it is prepared to do any negotiation at all around these bills. There are technicalities that will have unintended consequences throughout all of these bills, which this government doesn't seem prepared to hear about—on these EPBC reforms.

It's important. The SPEAKER: The time has concluded. Question negatived.

The SPEAKER: The question before the House is that the bill be agreed to.