THE HON TANYA PLIBERSEK MP
MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER

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​E&OE TRANSCRIPT
TELEVISION INTERVIEW
ABC 730
THURSDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2024

SUBJECTS: ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AUSTRALIA, ENVIRONMENT LAW REFORM, JOB FIGURES, JOB SECURITY, HOUSING.

DAVID SPEERS, HOST: Tanya Plibersek, welcome to the program.

TANYA PLIBERSEK, MINISTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AND WATER: Hello.

SPEERS: So, let's start on your plans for this new agency, Environment Protection Australia. Can you just clarify, under this, under your plan, who would make the final decision on a mine approval? Would it be the independent agency, or would it be you as the Minister?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, under the proposal we've got, the Minister has the final call on decisions, as is the case now with the department can delegate those sorts of every day decisions to the EPA. I mean, this is the first time that Australia would have an environment protection agency. It would have strong new powers and much higher penalties for deliberate wrongdoing. For example, now, about the maximum penalty that you can apply if a company has deliberately done the wrong thing with the environment is just under $15 million. Our proposal is that you would take that maximum penalty up as high as $780 million for deliberate wrongdoing and bring it into line with serious financial crime. The EPA would also have much stronger investigative powers. It would have the ability to issue stop-work orders if there was imminent environmental damage. And, of course, Environment Protection Australia would also have an educative role to work with project proponents to make sure that they're designing those projects in the right way so that we get better environmental protections from the start.

SPEERS: But the big sticking point for the Greens, and some of the crossbenchers in particular, is whether this new EPA would consider the impact on climate change of any new coal mine or gas project, for example. So, can you clear this up? Will you allow any sort of climate consideration as part of this, or would that be off the table?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we've made very clear that the laws that deal with carbon emissions in this country are the safeguard mechanism that was designed with and negotiated through with the Greens and the Teals and other crossbenchers. We have a safeguard mechanism that has legislated a pathway to net zero in this country –

SPEERS: – So, no climate consideration is part of the EPA?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, no, you don't have two separate laws trying to do the same thing. Any large project in Australia is measured against that safeguard mechanism to make sure that it fits within our trajectory to net zero. Now, we know that climate change is serious. We know that it has environmental impacts. That's why we're working so hard to address it.

SPEERS: You did, when you became Minister, say that you wanted to do a whole lot more than just this EPA. You wanted to change environmental laws. You said they were broken, they were out of date, they were ineffective. You said nature is in crisis, that it can't afford delays. The changes to environmental laws, now it's now very unclear when that might happen. Will that be pushed into the next term of parliament beyond the next election?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, we've already obviously passed our first tranche of environmental law reform and that's what gave us the expanded water trigger so that we are better able to protect our water sources from any negative impacts from mining. It's also what established the world's first national nature repair market that'll start operating next year. These laws, the second tranche of laws are in the Senate right now. They could be passed in the next Senate sitting week, and what I'd like to see is the Greens political party voting for what they've always said they wanted to see, an environment protection agency. And I'd like to see the Liberals and Nationals voting for faster, clearer decisions for business, which is what Environment Information Australia and the great new data that it would produce would enable.

SPEERS: Just a couple of other things while I've got you there, Minister. Jobs figures out today. They show unemployment has remained at 4.1 per cent, 64,000 new jobs created last month. Economists, though, say that means we most likely won't see an interest rate cut this year. Is there more heat in the economy than the government expected?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Well, I'm never going to complain about job creation in Australia. I mean, I'm thrilled with the fact that we've created a million new jobs. This is the largest number of jobs created by any government in Australian history, and it's exactly what Australians want right now. They want to know that they've got a job tomorrow and next week and next year, that they can keep bringing in the pay packet. I mean, we want to make sure that people have jobs and that when they've got that job that it's more secure and that the pay and conditions are better. We've seen a $7,000 increase in the minimum wage since we came to government. And, of course, on top of that, we've seen these really substantial tax cuts for more than 13 million Australians. Not just the top end, as the Liberals were proposing, but every single Australian taxpayer. We want more jobs. We want them to be more secure with good pay and conditions, and we want to make sure that people are, when they're earning more, keeping more of what they earn as well.

SPEERS: We've certainly heard that message and we know the government is happy about today's jobs figures. But we did see this week Labor falling behind the Coalition in Newspoll for the first time. Then came the news of the Prime Minister's property purchase on the Central Coast, which has unnerved some of your colleagues. Do you think this showed good judgement from the Prime Minister?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Look, I don't think any Australian is going to blame the Prime Minister after, you know, working all his life for buying a home to move into when he gets married to his new partner. I think most people would completely understand that he's got a personal life as well, and I do think most people are much more focused on what we're doing for their housing. And we've got $32 billion worth of housing policies making it easier to buy a home of your own, making it easier to afford a place to rent. We're investing through the Housing Australia Future Fund. We've already announced the first 14,000 homes to be built through that. That would have happened a lot sooner, that would have happened a lot sooner if we didn't have the Greens and the Liberals blocking that –

SPEERS: – Appreciate the segue there, Tanya Plibersek. Here is a question about judgement. If you were Prime Minister, and I'm not sure if you've ever considered that prospect, but if you were PM, is this something you would have done?

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: You know what? I know the Prime Minister is focused every minute of every day, not on himself, but what he's doing to the Australian people. And that means the housing policies that we're delivering for them. Just a nonsense sort of speculative question. David, I'm very happy where I live now, thanks very much.

SPEERS: OK. It's a nice part of the world. Tanya Plibersek, thanks for joining us.

MINISTER PLIBERSEK: Thank you.

END