On Thursday 27th November 2025, I made a speech on fixing Labor's environment laws
Transcript:
Ms WATSON-BROWN (Ryan) (09:18): How does positive change happen? It's not just granted by major party politicians and bureaucrats here in Canberra, who often make it their job to uphold the interests of massive corporations of the ultrawealthy. Positive progress, more often than not, runs counter to those interests. Positive change, in the short, medium and long term, only comes when there is a movement of everyday people working together for their shared interests. Positive change comes when that movement of everyday people is represented by politicians and a political party genuinely independent of the influence of big corporations.
Today, we pass significant new environmental legislation, and I am proud to say that it represents positive change. It represents a forward step. I want to thank the government for their ultimately positive negotiations and Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, my colleague and friend, for her strength, her vigilance, her indomitable focus on these negotiations and her long history of fighting for the environment and for the interests of Australian people. Only a few days ago, Labor's proposed legislation represented a backwards step—a great deal for big mining and logging corporations and a terrible deal for the rest of us who want to live a good life on this beautiful planet.
What changed? The Greens here in parliament, because of the work of tens of thousands of volunteers, stood up for the interests of the many against the interests of the few. We were backed by thousands of campaigners and community organisations who just didn't accept Labor's backward step.
Let's not be mistaken: this represents a single step forward. That's the best we could get for now. But it points to positive change and how that happens. The bigger we are, the more people who mobilise, the more Greens MPs there are in parliament—
Honourable members interjecting—
Ms WATSON-BROWN: I know you love that!—the bigger the positive steps we will achieve until we've replaced every single politician who is beholden to big corporations with representatives who are beholden instead to everyday people. It's then that we'll win the future we all deserve, where massive disparities of wealth are a thing of the past, where everyone has what they need to live a good life, a place they can really call home, time for family and friends, and a clean and protected environment. It shouldn't have to be like this. We shouldn't have to fight like this, but we do.
To everyone who has fought for positive change, I say keep it up. On protecting our native forests and protection against land clearing, the Greens won genuine positive steps. If Labor had their way under the original bill, big logging corporations would still be destroying our native forests. The Greens have negotiated the end of the regional forest agreement exemptions from the EPBC Act over 18 months.
The SPEAKER: The member for Ryan will pause. The Leader of the Opposition on a point of order?
Ms Ley: A point of order that goes to be order of the House. The member for Ryan, the new deputy prime minister, is not sitting in her seat behind the Prime Minister.
The SPEAKER: Resume your seat. That is a frivolous point of order. The member for Ryan will continue.
Ms WATSON-BROWN: The Greens have negotiated the end of the RFA exemptions, the major mechanism that was allowing this appalling practice to continue, from the EPBC Act over 18 months. We also got improvements on land clearing, meaning it will be significantly harder to clear regrowth forests that also provides important habitat for wildlife. If Labor had their way under their original bill, those loopholes would have remained. We've secured a new definition of 'high-risk vegetation' that will make it harder to clear vegetation on the Great Barrier Reef catchment area. Surely we all think that's a good idea—something UNESCO has repeatedly called for, knowing that unregulated vegetation clearing is a huge threat to the World Heritage values of the reef.
In other areas, we've stopped Labor's bill from making things worse. We've excluded coal and gas projects from the fast-track approval pathways and exemptions in Labor's original bill. If Labor had got what they wanted, which was basically what Chevron, BHP and the coal and gas corporations wanted, coal and gas projects could have been approved even faster than they already are—some as quickly as 30 days and with next to no public consultation. (Time expired)