Doorstop, Canberra

MURRAY WATT, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Thanks very much for coming today. The first thing that we wanted to cover off - and it's great to be joined by my colleagues from Far North Queensland, Senator Nita Green and Matt Smith - we want to highlight some new research that is being issued today by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation that demonstrates the enormous economic and environmental importance of the Great Barrier Reef, not just to Queensland but to the entire country.

This new research being released today demonstrates that the economic value of the Great Barrier Reef has reached $95 billion. Now, that's a 69% increase on the last time it was measured back in 2017. It supports 77,000 jobs which makes it the fifth biggest employer in our country. And that's why from an economic perspective it is so vital that we keep working towards preserving our incredible international icon, the Great Barrier Reef.

The Albanese Government is investing $1.2 billion over 9 years to improve the resilience of the Great Barrier Reef, that matters from an environmental perspective, but these figures demonstrate why that also matters from an economic perspective as well. And Nita and Matt will be able to talk to you further about the economic and employment importance of the Great Barrier Reef in Far North Queensland.

Now, as I say, this report in itself demonstrates that when we're thinking about environmental issues, we need to be thinking about wins for both the environment and for business. And that's exactly what the Albanese Government is seeking to do with our EPBC reforms that we'll be introducing to the Parliament this sitting fortnight. If you look back at the review that Graeme Samuel conducted five years ago for the then-environment minister Sussan Ley, what he said is that we need to have a balanced package of reforms that delivers real gains for the environment and for business. Not one or the other - for both. They had to go hand in hand and in fact what he found is that if you if you take strong environmental action, that benefits business, and if you undertake business activities appropriately, that can benefit the environment as well. So those two things hang together.

And that's why we are rejecting this silly idea that has come forward from Sussan Ley and Angie Bell yesterday that we should split the bill and only proceed at this point in time with the pro-business aspects of these reforms. Graeme Samuel himself said when he delivered his report that we need to do both. It's not about cherry picking one or the other. You need to do both and that's how you get the gains for the environment and for business.

Now, Sussan Ley knows this because she was the environment minister who commissioned Graeme Samuel's report and supported his recommendations when he said you can't pick one or the other and you need to do environmental reform and get business benefits. In fact, a certain person told Parliament around five years ago when she was introducing her attempt at these reforms, this is what she said: “The Morrison Government is committed to maintaining strong environmental protection and ensuring the EPBC Act is serving its intent to both protect the environment and grow the economy.” Now, the person who expressed those words was Sussan Ley. So, Sussan Ley herself when she was introducing her failed reforms to the EPBC law, acknowledged that these laws need to deliver for the environment and for business. So why has she changed her mind now that she's become the Opposition Leader? I think everyone understands why she's changed her mind. It's because she's desperately trying to shore up her leadership ahead of some very difficult net zero conversations with her party room this week.  Sussan Ley is in danger of putting her own leadership ahead of the environment and ahead of business. We can't split the bill. We need to do both. And we need to get on with it. I'll hand over to Senator Nita Green, the Assistant Minister for Tourism.

NITA GREEN, ASSISTANT MINISTER FOR TOURISM: Thanks Murray. And when it comes to the Reef, we know that it is an economic powerhouse and an environmental powerhouse as well. And that's what this report shows. I'm really pleased to welcome this report as the Assistant Minister for Tourism, but of course, the person who spent the last three years as the Special Envoy for the Great Barrier Reef.

The Reef is our home in Far North Queensland and we know how important it is to our communities, but this report shows that the Reef is an economic powerhouse as well. The Reef has delivered 77,000 jobs and is worth $9 billion to our economy and that contribution to our economy is growing and what that means, and what the report shows, is that the Reef is the fifth biggest employer of the private sector in Australia. That means that it's bigger than any Australian Bank, it's bigger than BHP, and when it comes to protecting jobs, those are the jobs that we're talking about.

It also shows that most of these jobs are in regional Queensland. And so it really dispels the myth, once again, that we don't need to do anything about net zero to protect jobs in regional Queensland. These jobs are in regional Queensland, they need to be protected, and that's why we're delivering such important reforms and investment in the Reef. I'm really proud of this report because it also shows that our government is working closely together with the tourism industry, and as the Assistant Minister for Tourism I couldn't be prouder of the partnerships that we've built with the tourism industry over the last three years. The tourism industry is pulling its weight when it comes to protecting the Great Barrier Reef and the Tourism Reef Protection Initiative is just one of those examples of how we work together.

When we came to government and what you see from the Coalition is division and delay and denial of climate change and not wanting to protect something as important as the Reef. We know that when you work together in partnership with farmers, with tourism operators, with Traditional Owners, that's when you get the best results possible.

Now, of course, climate change is the biggest threat to the Reef and that's why our government is investing $1.2 billion to protect it. We've increased our investment in water quality protection, we've increased our investment in Crown-of-thorns starfish protection, and we're delivering reform in sustainable fishing that will make a difference to the Reef for generations to come. The Reef is resilient, but we need to keep it that way, and the only way we can do that is by the Albanese Labor Government delivering on the reforms and the climate action that these 77,000 jobs need to be protected.

I just want to give a final shout out, I was on Lady Elliott Island on Tuesday to talk about this report, that one island alone in the Reef supports 130 jobs. It's a beautiful place, and six months ago it did suffer a bleaching event, but the Reef looks amazing, and it is resilient. And all of the things that we are doing together in partnership with the conservation movement are working. That's what you can achieve when you work together in collaboration. That's what Murray is seeking to do with the laws that we're introducing this week. We want to move forward by working with business and industry, working with conservation groups and getting the best results for the economy and for the environment. I'm going to hand over to Matt, and you might need to adjust this microphone.

MATT SMITH, MEMBER FOR LEICHHARDT: My name is Matt Smith, I'm the Federal Member for Leichhardt. 77,000 jobs, that's food on the table, it's the mortgage getting paid, it’s the car, it's kids going to school. But it's more than that, the Great Barrier Reef is a part of who we are intrinsically in far North Queensland, from the songlines of the Gimuy Walubara Yidinji people who talk of the great turtle rising from the sea, which later became known as Green Island, to all of the jobs that come through the tourism industry, to the Rangers, to the small businesses that serve, Reef fleet and the boats, we are the Reef. And I’m really excited that this this report acknowledges the great value that the Reef makes to Australia, not just economically but culturally as well. This is a bucket list experience, people come from all around the world to spend just three hours in one of the most amazing places on the planet. The world's largest living organism, that's why we speak about it as a person, it is employing things, it has its own personality, it has its own life. And the Reef is bouncing back, we know that it is resilient, but with all of the work we've been doing with local agriculture, with the tourism industry so we get more eyes on the Reef, we're giving it the resilience it needs to face this massive challenge of climate change.

I am from the regions, you can't get much more regional than Leichhardt and I know that our constituency is crying out for net zero because we know what's at stake - 77,000 jobs, people's livelihoods, people's kids’ livelihoods. We have an opportunity here to protect one of the world's great assets and to have it provide for generations. And that's what the Anthony Albanese Labor Government is all about. Thank you.

JOURNALIST: Minister, on the environment reforms, you've made it clear that you don't want to split the bill. Will you put a timeline on these negotiations, do you expect to have a deal this week before the bill is introduced? Is this something we can expect to drag on once the bill has been introduced?

MURRAY WATT: I've made no secret of the fact that we want to pass these reforms this year. We have three sitting weeks left to go, there's plenty of time for people to have a look at the bill, especially given we've started sharing most of the bill with the Coalition, the Greens and stakeholders. But also, we need to remember that this bill is being introduced to the Parliament five years after Graeme Samuel tabled his recommendations. We have been consulting to death on these reforms and both business and environment groups are crying out for reform to finally be delivered, so we need to get on with it. I'm not going to set a timetable for deals. You know, it would be pretty unusual to strike a deal on a bill like this before it's even been introduced to the Parliament. But certainly, we want to pass these reforms this year, and we'll be working overtime to try to make that happen.

JOURNALIST: You said that you've shared a lot of the details with the Coalition. They say especially some of the stuff around the EPA is still quite vague. Do you have more information coming on that stuff?

MURRAY WATT: Standing here now we have shared around 70% of the draft bill with the Coalition, the Greens and stakeholders, and they've had an opportunity to start looking at that. We expect today to be providing almost all of the remainder of the bill to all of those groups so that they can see it. You will have seen my comments over the weekend about the EPA, and I know there's been a lot of interest in that. And we're proceeding with a model that gives the EPA a high degree of independence, especially when it comes down to things like compliance and enforcement with the laws. But we are preserving the current system, which allows the Minister of the day to make a decision on projects and whether they're approved or not. The reality is that right now over 90% of those decisions are made by officials of my department under delegation from me, and we would expect that to continue with those sorts of decisions mostly being made by the EPA, but with the ability for the Minister to make any decision they choose

JOURNALIST: Is it still your aspiration that working with the Coalition is sort of the optimal pathway to getting this through? I mean there are other ways to get this through the Parliament. And it is a serious question, I mean, is it better to have buy-in from the other sort of main opposition party here?

MURRAY WATT: Yeah, I'm only smiling because I've seen the media claiming that our preferred partner is the Coalition. In every interview I've done and every conversation I've had with journalists, I've said that we are open to passing these reforms with either the Coalition or the Greens. I can't make that any clearer. I've met the same number of times with the Coalition and the Greens, I've spoken as recently as yesterday with representatives from those parties. What we’re about is passing a bill that is good for the environment and good for business, and it's up to the Coalition and the Greens to decide are they prepared to do that or are they going to go into their corners and fight for a bill that only delivers to the environment or only delivers to business? That's not what Graeme Samuel recommended, he said you have to have a bill that does both. That's what our bill does. And that's why both the Coalition and the Greens should support it.

JOURNALIST: You set you met, well you spoke to them both just yesterday about the bill. Was there much of a change in between that discussion and what you have had previously? Considering we did see the Coalition come out quite strongly against it last night.

MURRAY WATT: I was surprised, to tell you the truth, that the Coalition wrote to us yesterday, saying that we should split the bill. No business group has called for that, because business groups understand that we need a balanced set of reforms that delivers to the environment and for business. The other point about that is that the Coalition hasn't said what they mean by “they'll support the parts of the bill that streamline the approvals process.” We don't know what they mean. But many of the aspects of this bill that might be seen as pro-environment measures actually support business as well by giving them the certainty that they are looking for. So, things like defining what is an unacceptable impact on the environment from a project, that tells business what sort of projects are going to get approved, and what sort don't have any chance whatsoever so they shouldn't even bother. Things like creating national environmental standards, that might be seen as an environmental measure, again, that gives business clarity about the types of applications they can put in and expect to have supported. So this package is integrated. The things that might be seen as supporting the environment actually help business as well by providing that certainty. And some of the changes that we want to make to business processes and approvals processes can help the improvement by cordoning off certain areas that can't be developed into the future. That's why this this idea about splitting the bill is so mad because it won't actually deliver for the environment or for business. And that's why you haven't got a single person out there supporting the Coalition on it.

JOURNALIST: There was an open letter written today organised from the Australian Conservation Foundation and Greenpeace. A bunch of scientists essentially saying there are still big loopholes in this bill around allowing deforestation, and the bill doesn't do enough to tackle that. Could I get your response to that, do you agree with their concerns?

MURRAY WATT: I'm certainly aware that environment groups would like to see changes made to those sorts of exemptions. We won't be including anything in the bill that deals with the exemption that applies for agricultural land clearing, but we do intend, as we have said previously, to make changes to the laws that apply these new national environmental standards to the regional forestry agreements that cover native forestry. Again, that was a recommendation from Graeme Samuel that we should do that, we've listened to him, and that's what we'll be doing. Thanks all.