Mr REPACHOLI (Hunter) (13:25):

I rise to speak on the Nature Repair Market Bill 2023 and the Nature Repair Market (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2023. The Hunter electorate is lucky to be filled with beautiful nature. We have dense bush and native plants and animals, including rare native birds, and we have the largest saltwater lake in the Southern Hemisphere. As a father of two young girls, I want to make sure that we leave our land and nature, as a whole, better off for them and for their children. To achieve this, nature needs to be looked after, and, where it is damaged, we must try and repair it. This is why this government is making it easier for people to invest in activities that help repair nature.

We're supporting landholders, including farmers and First Nations communities, to do practical things that will make a real difference in the preservation of our natural world, things like plant native species, repair damaged riverbeds or remove invasive species. We're also making it easier for businesses and philanthropists to invest in those efforts, because anyone who wants to help the environment should, and now they will have more ways to make a difference through these simple, achievable measures.

The establishment of the Nature Repair Market is all part of this government's commitment to delivering on our Nature Positive Plan. We've committed to protecting 30 per cent of Australian land and seas by 2030. This is in line with what has been adopted globally under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. These goals further reinforce the findings of the 2021 Australia:State of the Environment report, which told a devastating story of environmental loss and inaction. We are the government who released this report. Those opposite hid it, and it's easy to see why. It didn't make those opposite look good at all when it comes to looking after the environment. It painted a crystal-clear picture of exactly how much damage that lot, over a decade of neglect towards the environment, did.

The results are damning. Australia has lost more mammal species to extension than any other continent, and, for the first time, Australia has more foreign plant species than native, largely due to the fact that in between the years 2000 and 2017 habitat the size of Tasmania was cleared. Our waterways were hurting too. Water is the single most important element for human existence, and the continued survival of the human race is not considered to be worth time or attention to those opposite. Our oceans are full of plastic. Up to 80,000 pieces of plastic are found per square kilometre, and flow in most Murray-Darling rivers has reached record-low levels.

We know those opposite never cared. It was made clear by their actions and their inactions. They axed climate laws, failed to land a single one of their 22 different energy policies and failed to fix Australia's broken environment laws, despite having a widely supported blueprint to do so. They promise $40 million for Indigenous water but never delivered a drop. They cut highly protected areas of marine parks in half and cut billions from our environment department. They also did some things just to make themselves look good—like setting recycling targets with no plan to actually deliver them. The recycling target was 70 per cent, but it didn't even get passed 16 per cent for four years. It was one of either two things: incompetence or inaction. I'll let you decide which one, Deputy Speaker Claydon.

We all know that our neighbours, the Pacific islanders, are under serious threat by rising sea levels. This is understandably one of the most important issues for Pacific governments, so important that, because of the inaction of the previous government, a wedge between us and our important friends in the Pacific was formed. The now Leader of the Opposition doesn't care. He laughed about our Pacific island neighbours going underwater. This just tops off the carelessness of those opposite. You'd think the election would have been a wake-up call, but they're no better in opposition than they were in government before they lost their prized blue-ribbon traditional coalition-supportive seats.

They voted against the safeguards mechanism, which is a policy that they championed. They voted against their own policy because for them politics is more important than progress. Unlike the previous government, we are making sure that Australia does its bit to look after the environment. We are not slacking behind the rest of the world. But clearly there is a lot of repair to be done. Significant investment is needed in conservation and restoration for a nature-positive future, and the findings of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act review by Professor Graeme Samuel AC make clear that businesses and private sector investment can contribute to reversing environmental decline and help repair and heal nature. We know that some of these private companies, as well as conservation groups, farmers and other landholders, are looking for ways to achieve positive outcomes for nature.

The time for this bill to be introduced is now, with an independent report by PricewaterhouseCoopers estimating that the market for biodiversity in Australia could unlock $137 billion in financial flows by 2050. This is a significant amount of demand, and we are making sure we are well placed to respond to that demand. This isn't about politics either. The Nature Repair Market will be based on science and allow Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders to promote their unique knowledge on their terms. This legislation will encourage investment in nature and drive environmental improvements across Australia.

The projects which will be undertaken include activities such as weeding, planting native species and pest control to deliver long-term nature-positive outcomes. These projects can be undertaken on land or water, including lakes and rivers as well as marine and coastal environments. This is also a win for regional Australia and electorates like mine because it will help create jobs and a nature-positive economy as well.

In order for the Nature Repair Market to be effective and make a real difference, it is important that buyers can invest in the market with confidence. To help make sure that this is the case, the bill provides for biodiversity certificates to have integrity and represent an actual environmental improvement. Another key integrity measure is an independent expert committee which is responsible for ensuring projects deliver high-quality nature-positive outcomes underpinned by a constant approach to the measurement, assessment, and verification of biodiversity. There will also be assurance and compliance requirements, which include monitoring, reporting and notification on the delivery of project activities and the progress of environmental outcomes. This will help to ensure the integrity of environmental outcomes.

Part of rebuilding and repairing means restoring public accountability and trust. Transparency will be a core element of the scheme; comprehensive information and project certificates will be available on a public register. Additional information will be regularly published by the regulator, and there will be activity releases of relevant data by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. This means parliament and the public will be able to monitor the scheme, providing opportunity for citizen oversight, which will also support certainty and value for the market.

Our government is committed to doing things differently. We are committed to taking care of our environment and creating a better system to make sure that the environment is properly taken care of. The Nature Repair Market will be an opportunity to create a supply of projects certified through purpose-designed offset methods, and the register will be a comprehensive and public source of information on these projects and the biodiversity that they are protecting. This is a way forward for how Australia repairs the environment. This bill will establish a new market for investing in nature positive outcomes. It will support Australia's international commitments to protect and repair ecosystems and reverse species decline and extinction. It will generate investment and job opportunities for the nature-positive economy and create new income streams for landholders, including Aboriginal peoples, Torres Strait Islanders and farmers. It's a win for the environment, it's a win for landholders and it's a win for jobs. This bill is a win for business and a win for our nation. This bill is a winner for all.

We are blessed in this country, and in the Hunter specifically, with our natural environment, and at no time should we stop advancing as a country or as humans, but, as we do so, we have a responsibility to make sure we look after the environment. We need to do this for ourselves, and we must do this for our generations to come. This bill is another step in this journey, and I commend this bill to the House.