Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025

Mr ALBANESE (Grayndler—Prime Minister) (09:07): I move: That the amendments be agreed to. These reforms are a win for business, a win for our natural environment and a win for the country. They mean more investment, more jobs, more housing and more infrastructure, and they protect something that every Australian values and has a deep connection to: our treasured and unique natural environment.

We know that the current laws are broken. They are not working for our environment and they are not working for industry. Today, we fix them.

Approval times for new projects have blown out. There is a lack of certainty for investment and a lack of certainty for business. We need quicker yeses and quicker noes—delivering more jobs, more renewable energy projects and more homes for Australians.

We are delivering for workers in the forestry industry by investing in their jobs. Those things are so important for our nation's future. We need to protect the environment that we cherish with a national environment protection agency.

This is an Australian first. The Samuel review was commissioned by the coalition and then ignored. They treated the recommendations with contempt—and with their heckling here this morning they show that they still do.

But have a look at the Australian Financial Review to see what Graeme Samuel himself says about these reforms. He says that these reforms are completely in line with the recommendations that he made back in 2020 for a legislated review—after 10 years, of course—of operation of the act. But that was commissioned by the coalition.

That is the blueprint that we took in good faith into negotiations with all sides of the House and the Senate. Tragically, the mess that sits opposite us was incapable of coming up with plans that were consistent and that made sense, and they changed their position from hour to hour, coming up with furphies about radioactivity and all sorts of things that needed to be included.

In the final documentation from the coalition, they said, 'Oh, there's more.' This was yesterday afternoon. They couldn't tell us what their amendments would be. Well, what we did achieve was a majority in the Senate, and I thank all those senators who voted for this legislation.

And I thank and give praise to my environment minister, Senator Watt. It took more than 120 meetings to get this through. There was the template for consultation with our party's committee process and with our party membership.

There was the template for consultation with our state governments—in particular, WA Premier Cook, who has welcomed these reforms. Premier Cook put forward five changes that he wanted. He got five out of five ticked off and delivered.

I thank the fact that Senator Hanson-Young and Senator Waters were prepared to be flexible and prepared to not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. This was a 'yes-alition'—people who wanted reform. They are making a big difference on housing, energy, critical minerals and resources projects that make a difference, unleashing our nation's capability and backing our economy, because a stronger economy and a cleaner environment depend on each other, and with these laws our government is delivering both.