Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek on Labor’s planned EPA, streamlining approvals for resources companies, and why listing the reef as endangered is wrong.
The Labor government’s Environment and Water Minister, Tanya Plibersek, inherited the portfolio after then-opposition spokeswoman Terri Butler was ousted at the May election. Since then, Plibersek has been racing to get on top of the brief.. This is an edited extract of the interview.
Labor said before the last election that we will probably respond to the Samuel Review of the Environmental Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act. It’s pretty amazing that the [previous Coalition] government gets someone as distinguished as Graeme Samuel to review laws that are really not fit for purpose any longer. We know they’re not fit for purpose. He does a massive piece of work on making them fit for purpose and the [Morrison] government just sort of lets that sink without a trace.
I’m not going to start making announcements without extensive consultation. I’ll talk to people about a model, we’ll design a model, we’ll consult on the model. This is not something I’m going to come up with in a few weeks in my office. It’s a big and important change. We want better protection for the environment, and we want to do it in a way that makes approvals processes faster and cheaper and less complex.
So, for people who haven’t followed what’s gone on here, why is this change to an EPA required? Why is the existing system – which is really much more run through the Environment Department through the ministry and cabinet process – going wrong in your view? That’s why it’s so very important to speak to all stakeholders and do a proper job of consultation so that we can reassure people that this is not a competition between jobs and the environment. It’s a process that will give us better environmental outcomes and faster, cheaper approvals.Advertisement
One of the interesting things from the election is that Labor and the former Coalition government lost seats to the Greens. How are you thinking about that political pressure, when one day maybe during this term, you get the final call on things like Scarborough and Beetaloo gas projects?
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