Tanya Plibersek
Sydney · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“The Redress Scheme has, since 2018, received 80,000 applications and disbursed over $2 billion in redress payments to survivors. Thousands have received apologies or counselling that have changed their lives. That acknowledgement has changed their lives.”
“The scheme's operating expenses are met by taxpayers, who also step in as a funder of last resort for compensation payments, so the financial impacts obviously go beyond the victim-survivors themselves.”
“I want to take the opportunity to note recent media reports, particularly those in the Australian Financial Review , which said: Edmund Rice Education was created in 2007 and now operates dozens of schools affiliated with the Christian Brothers. … The split created a new organisation with the bulk of the Christian Brothers assets.”
“And of course they are also part of the larger group of people that are eligible now, because we've increased thresholds. Thanks to our changes, families now get around $30,000 of paid parental leave. That's more than double what it was when we came to government. But it's not just about paid parental leave.”
“The federal government is gravely concerned about the Christian Brothers Oceania Province's 22 June 2026 announcement that it would seek creditor and court approval for a creditors scheme of arrangement and a moratorium on all current and future civil proceedings in connection with child sexual abuse claims.”
“Thanks so much to the member for Cunningham. I know that she is out and about in her electorate all the time, and she knows that over 1,800 parents benefited from paid parental leave in her electorate just last year. Last week, I met Baby Zoe and her mum and dad. Baby Zoe is number three in a family of three children.”
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“I met the social workers who are right now helping to connect young people to housing, education, mental health services and support to help them get off drugs. In particular, were talking about vaping and what a problem it has become for many young people. The young individuals, who without this support would have fallen through the cracks, are now stepping forward with renewed confidence and determination. We're investing in these young people. Youth Off The Streets was very pleased to receive just under a million dollars in the most recent funding round, which was part of a $28.3 million funding round to 35 organisations across Australia to support at-risk youth through the Youth Empowerment Program announced by my colleague Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus this month.”
“I was so pleased to visit two fantastic services in my electorate a couple of weeks ago: Tribal Warrior and Youth Off The Streets. I heard from the workers at both Youth Off The Streets and Tribal Warrior about the wonderful work they're doing and about the additional support that they've received recently from our federal government. As many would know, Youth Off The Streets was founded by Father Chris Riley in the early 1990s. Father Chris Riley did amazing work, working with young people that many others had given up on and making sure that those young people felt love and support and had a pathway to permanent housing, education and work. Youth Off The Streets has been a sanctuary of support and hope for generations of young people.”
“In contrast, the Minister for Climate Change and Energy has seen at 15 gigawatts of renewable energy already added to our energy grid. That's more than the Leader of the Opposition's nuclear power plants could hope to achieve in 25 years time if he spends $600 billion of taxpayers' money, if the state and territory governments agree to allow him to change their laws and if he can find four times the amount of water that the coal-fired power stations need to generate electricity. I understand why they're sensitive about it. We are on track to see renewable energy reach 82 per cent of our grid by 2030, and I'm really proud to be part of a government that is doing that. This is one of the biggest transformations in Australian history, and it's on track.”
“I thank the member for her question. The number of coal mines or extensions approved is 10. Four have been cancelled. Gas projects: there have been three extraction projects approved. Renewables: more than 80 have been approved, and there are about another 130 in the system, which is a real indication of the way our economy is changing. I understand why the Liberals and Nationals are sensitive about this. They were warned when they were in government that there were 24 coal-fired power stations facing closure, and they did absolutely nothing to prepare for those closures. What we have done is see this massive rollout of renewable energy, because that's what the market is investing in. Those opposite used to believe in market policies, particularly driving our energy sector. They had 22 energy policies; they didn't land a single one.”
“As I said about the Leader of the Opposition's reckless announcement last week, all he did when he made his reckless announcement last week on the North West Shelf, which is exactly what I've been asked about—”
“I thank the member for Durack for her question. The department is assessing the project in accordance with Australia's national environment laws, which, as we all know, were put in place by John Howard's Liberal government. Every single time I've been asked about a decision in this place, I have consistently said that I don't comment on decisions before me. The reason that I don't comment on decisions before me is, as the Minister for Resources can tell you, it leads to court cases. She's been engaged in two court cases, cleaning up the mess of the previous government where the previous government and the previous Prime Minister, when he swore himself in as a secret minister, prejudged a decision and it ended up in court. But I can say very clearly that our broad approach will always be to follow the law and to follow the science.”
“The criteria are that the original decision was not a controlled action, if undertaken in a particular manner; that the activity underway is ongoing or recurring; that the activity had been ongoing or recurring for five years before the reconsideration application was submitted; and, finally, that the activity is being carried on under the supervision of a state or territory government—for example, a state or territory environment protection agency. Under the existing law—as the former minister for the environment should know—an activity, including an established industry, could be shut down overnight if an environmental assessment had to commence. The former minister for the environment could have fixed this problem. She could have fixed this problem in any way she chose to, when she was the environment minister, but she didn't.”
“I'd like to thank the former minister for the environment for that question. I say to her—she received the report of Professor Graeme Samuel into John Howard's broken environment laws. She had every opportunity as the environment minister at the time to fix it, and she did nothing. This amendment to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is a very specific amendment that will apply in very limited circumstances to reconsiderations, a very small number of reconsiderations that meet four particular criteria.”
“That's not something that will happen in 25 years time, after we spend $600 billion of taxpayers' money. That's done now. We've approved more than 80 renewable energy projects, which are enough to power 10.4 million Australian homes. There are only 10.8 million households in Australia. We've approved almost enough renewable energy to power every single household in Australia. This is a transition that's real. It's happening right now; we're in the middle of it. The thousands of jobs that are working on that renewable transition are real; they're happening right now. People are doing that work in communities, including regional communities, right around Australia. I'm pleased to present this Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Reconsiderations) Bill 2025 to the House, and I commend its passage.”
“This is Australia doing its share when it comes to the global effort—or what should be a global effort—to reduce carbon emissions. Since coming to government, and since I have been the environment minister, I've approved more than 80 renewable energy projects. Those 80 renewable energy projects have taken us to an unprecedented amount of renewable energy in our national grid. The last figures we saw, from the end of last year, had renewable energy at 46 per cent of the grid. Since coming to government, we've added 15 gigawatts of renewable energy to the grid. Now, 15 gigawatts of renewable energy is more renewable energy than the Leader of the Opposition's nuclear reactors would ever produce under the plan that he's announced to the Australian people. And that renewable energy is already done.”
“That second tranche of environmental law included much stronger data and transparency as well, taking state-of-the-environment reporting from every five years to every three years, having a constant set of upgraded data available for people to track how the Australian environment was going and, of course, making sure that independent and world-first definition of 'nature positive' was included in legislation as well. We also have passed strong laws to force big polluters to cut their emissions, because we know that Australia can get to net zero carbon pollution by 2050, and we know that that is critical for our natural environment. We know that climate change is a significant risk to our natural environment and that getting to net zero is a critical part of reducing that risk.”
“We know how troubling PFAS, PFOA and other chemical types leaching into our environment has been, particularly around former Defence sites and also around our airports. Making sure that we have proper controls on these forever chemicals will be very important for future generations of Australians. We boosted the first tranche of our environmental laws with a strong water trigger to make sure that the impacts of coal and gas projects on water are considered. As I mentioned earlier, the second tranche of our environmental laws passed this place at the end of the first half of last year, in July last year. That included the establishment of Australia's first environment protection agency with strong new powers and penalties, taking maximum penalties under environment law from around $15 million to $780 million.”
“We're establishing the world's first nature repair market to make it easier to invest in nature restoration. I was very pleased recently to see the extensive public discussion about the first proposed methodology under that nature repair market which would, again, give us wonderful opportunities to see not just government investment but also philanthropic and business investment in nature restoration. We've passed strong laws to protect the ozone layer. We've also delivered Australia's first national environmental chemicals standards, banning or ensuring the safety of 900 industrial chemicals so far, with more added every year. That includes those forever chemicals that have been particularly problematic in the Australian landscape.”
“We're investing $200 million to clean up our rivers and catchments in our urban areas to transform concrete drains into renaturalised streams and creek beds where threatened species that exist in our urban environment can re-establish and move through the landscape. Indeed, the manager of government business has one of these projects in his electorate that I was very pleased to visit last year. We have already increased recycling capacity in this country by 1.3 million tonnes every year. An enormous amount of rubbish that would otherwise be going into landfill is instead being recovered for productive uses. We're stopping paper, glass, metal and also those soft and difficult-to-recycle plastics going into landfill. Instead we are investing to recover those materials and to extract the value out of them, to remake products in Australia.”
“We're investing more than half a billion dollars to better protect threatened plants and animals and tackle the feral animals and weeds that are killing our native species, including doing phenomenally innovative work like using the Felixer cat traps and also using drone technology and satellite technology to identify weed outbreaks, to go out into the landscape and literally manage species like feral cats in the landscape automatically, without human presence, so that we can place these cat traps and so on right through the landscape and protect much larger areas from the threats of feral animals and weeds.”
“We're investing $1.3 billion to support the successful Indigenous Rangers Program, including doubling the number of Indigenous rangers, who are doing an absolutely magnificent job of managing feral animals, getting rid of weeds and managing fire risks, particularly in Indigenous protected areas, and we've expanded those Indigenous protected areas with a $230 million investment. We're establishing 12 new Indigenous protected areas that will cover an area larger than Tasmania. The important thing about these new IPAs is they're not all central desert; they're in all sorts of landscapes including very biodiverse regions on the North Coast of New South Wales, which are underrepresented in our national reserve system.”
“We've doubled funding to better look after our national parks, including Kakadu and Uluru. We are progressing World Heritage listing for more of Australia's most special places, including places like Cape York, the Flinders Ranges, and Murujuga in Western Australia, which is the site of 50,000-year-old rock art. We've stopped Jabiluka from being mined for uranium and we're looking forward to adding it to Kakadu National Park instead. We've saved Toondah Harbour in Queensland from destruction, including the protection of internationally important wetlands which provide an important stop for migratory bird species.”
“So far, we have protected an extra 100 million hectares of Australian ocean and bush, an area the size of Germany, Italy and Norway combined, and in the budget tonight we'll also be committing an additional $250 million to protect an additional area of Australia's landmass around the size of New Zealand, which would take us to 30 per cent of Australia's landmass protected by 2030, a commitment that we were pleased to make in Montreal at the global biodiversity conference. We've quadrupled the size of Heard Island and McDonald Islands Marine Reserve. That was the biggest act of ocean conservation anywhere in the world in 2024. We've tripled the size of Macquarie Island Marine Park. That was the biggest act of environmental conservation anywhere in the world in 2023.”
“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 substantial investment to get a project up and running, and most importantly protecting jobs. This is good, 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. This is in accord with the very long list of achievements that this government has made in better protecting the environment.”
“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. We have invested $37.5 million in priority conservation actions for the Maugean skate population in Macquarie Harbour—investments to improve water quality and environmental conditions within Macquarie Harbour and support critical species conservation actions including a successful captive breeding program. We are also actively working with salmon industry stakeholders on further steps that can be taken to better protect the environment and ensure the industry has a sustainable and long-term future producing high-quality salmon.”
“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 manners' to meet the criteria. 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 have invested more than half a billion dollars in targeted threatened species recovery, including under the Saving Native Species Program, the Natural Heritage Trust and the National Environmental Science Program.”
“This means that swift action is required now, but also to ensure that these circumstances do not occur again. The bill recognises that an established and lawfully operating project, where proponents did the right thing and referred their action to the environment minister, and which have been investing and operating for five or more years on the basis of that decision, should not be put at risk. The bill would only capture a very small subset of decisions that can be reconsidered, and they are in that category 'not controlled action if undertaken in a particular manner', 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.”
“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. It's important that the minister be able to do this. But these powers can also 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 severe, putting jobs, community and individual livelihoods at risk—industries and communities like Macquarie Harbour. This is a timely example, but it's potentially not an isolated event.”
“We've also said that we want a country in which nature is being repaired and is regenerating rather than continuing to decline. And that's what we are doing. This bill would address a critical problem in our current laws—a problem that's playing out right now in a small community in Tasmania that is supported by a well-established industry; a problem that is putting 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 reconsideration of 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 very specific criteria.”
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I'd like to add that Labor is committed to fixing our environment laws so that they work better for our environment and better for business. This means that our laws need to improve nature, and protect our unique native plants and animals. And our laws need to be less bureaucratic and provide more certainty for business. That's what the community expects and that's what we're delivering. We'll do this in a commonsense way that supports both national productivity and environmental protection. Everybody agrees that the current laws don't work. We said that we would improve certainty for business—certainty that helps drive investment in jobs, in communities and in nation-building projects. That's what we're doing.”
“Professor Graeme Samuel was selected by the previous government to report on our environmental laws, and what did he find? He found that those laws are not working for business and they're not working for nature.”
“I thank the Leader of the Nationals for his question. It's pretty clear what our plan was. The legislation passed through the House of Representatives with the support of many of those on the crossbench and Labor. We introduced it into the Senate. We couldn't get it through the Senate. That's a shame. Many of us are very disappointed about that, but it hasn't gone through the Senate. It won't go through the Senate in this parliament. We have withdrawn it from the Notice Paper . I think many Australians watching this debate would be very disappointed that this parliament couldn't do what everybody in this parliament acknowledges is necessary, which is sensible environmental law reform based on the report of Professor Graeme Samuel to the previous government.”
“I really want to thank the member for her question, because she has shown that by working cooperatively we can make progress, instead of just blocking. (Time expired)”
“This side has added more ocean, an area larger than the size of Germany and Italy combined, to the waters under protection. Those opposite cut marine parks. We saved the Great Barrier Reef from an endangered listing. Those opposite have climate policies that put it in danger. We have doubled funding to national parks. Those opposite let our national parks fall into disrepair, to the extent that there were crocodile warning signs falling onto the ground and going missing—because those opposite let our national parks decline. We've invested more than half a billion dollars to better protect our threatened species. Those opposite cut funding to the environment department by 40 per cent. We're increasing recycling by 1.3 million tonnes a year. Those opposite voted with the Greens to make it easier to export our garbage overseas.”
“They weren't prepared to vote for better data, more transparency and a world-first definition of nature positive. And I think Liberal and Nationals voters would be surprised to know that those opposite voted against faster approvals for projects based on better data and more regional planning. What is clear is that if people want real progress on nature law reform, then they have to vote Labor in the House of Representatives—and in the Senate as well. We know, on this side, that Australians love camping, they love fishing, they love bushwalking, they love boating and they love going for a swim. We need to preserve nature for the future. We want our kids and our grandkids to be able to see a koala in the wild. That's why we've got to act now. The difference could not be starker.”
“Thank you very much to the member for Kooyong for her question and also to those other members that are on the crossbench today that actually supported our nature-positive laws when they passed through the House of Representatives. I think everybody agrees that our nature laws need reform. Unfortunately, the Liberals and the Nationals teamed up with the Greens political party to block that in the Senate, just as they teamed up to block the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, and that led to 80 million extra tonnes of carbon dioxide pollution entering our atmosphere. I think Greens political party voters would be surprised to learn that the political party that purports to stand up for the environment wasn't prepared to vote for a strong new cop on the beat, an environmental protection agency with strong new powers and penalties.”