9 May 2024
Topics: Labor’s Nature Positive plan, environmental law delays, cultural heritage laws
E&OE
Andrew Bolt:
I have to say there’s another sign that the Government is now suddenly all confused about how green it should actually be. The Prime Minister this week refused to commit to releasing the full details of something Labor’s been promising for years now, it’s big plan called Nature Positive. That’s a plan to make sure that whatever we develop we’re actually going to leave nature in even better shape, which sounds to be ominous, and also do even more to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage. Joining us, the Opposition’s environment spokesman, Jonathon Duniam. Jonathon, great to see you again. No details still from the Government. What’s going on, do you think?
Senator Duniam:
Well, Andrew, g’day from a very wet Tasmania and Tim Flannery must be incredibly relieved that our dams are starting to fill with all of this rain. I’ve never known Governments to hide good things. They only hide bad things. The fact that we were told by Tanya Plibersek and Anthony Albanese at the last election that we didn’t have a minute to spare, we had to save the world through new environmental laws and the terrible Coalition Government had left us in such a bad state. Well, we were supposed to have the laws in Parliament by the end of last year, the consultation process hasn’t even finished, not a skerrick of legislation has been drafted. So it puts paid to this urgent nature of what they were planning to do. But I think the real problem here for Labor is you’ve got a Minister in an inner-city seat where she’s fighting off the Greens to hang on to her seat in Parliament. She wants to do everything she can to stop job-creating projects that drive our economy, but then she’s got other people in her own party room, her own caucus, who are begging her to do the right thing by the economy, and she knows common sense prevails. So, she’s caught between the left and the right of her own party, and that’s why they haven’t progressed these laws because they know they cannot please everyone.
Andrew Bolt:
And of course, they’d like to spring them after the election when it’s too late to object. But, Jonathon Duniam, I’ve got to say, whenever I hear, you know, you’ve said this a number of times, “Where’s the plans, bring them on, bring them on”, and I’m thinking, “No, no, no, don’t”, because I’d rather they stayed in the cupboard, to be honest. What’s your attitude here? What’s your big plan?
Senator Duniam:
Well, we’ve got to go back to basics. I mean, for goodness sake, Government gets involved in too much. The Federal Government in particular. I think States and Territories, generally speaking, as far as one can trust the Government, know best what to do in their own jurisdiction. But we’re going to get some common sense injected back into these laws. We’ve got to restrict the time it takes for projects to be approved. We’ve got to restrict third party standing, in my view, so some cashed up activists in Sydney can’t stop a project going ahead in remote Western Australia. We’ve got to be able to provide certainty to investors so they can create jobs in our community and dig up the minerals we need to build the things we need to build and generate the energy we need to generate. They’re the things that we’ll be looking to do. It’s pretty simple. It’s not rocket science, and we’ll work with industry, and we’ll work with the community to make sure we do it. But Labor seem unable, after two years, to be able to do this and I think it’s a shame on them. And the environment movement are castigating them as well, which I think proves they have lost their way.
Andrew Bolt:
Yeah, but I don’t know if you want to be on the same side as the Greens on this one. But just quickly, Jonathon Duniam, more cultural heritage laws are actually part of this. It’s not just Nature Positive, right? That’s what Plibersek also wants, Tanya Plibersek, the Environment Minister. We’re really getting non-Aboriginal Australians locked out from some popular tourism sites that we discussed earlier and even potentially, Lake Eyre. I mean, golly, do we really need more of these cultural heritage laws?
Senator Duniam:
No, Andrew, we don’t. What an outrage. What kind of a country are we living in, where we are isolating certain parts of our country for people who have a specific racial or ethnic background. In some cases I know it’s based on gender, too. There are some culturally sensitive sites where only men can go to in Aboriginal cultures. Look, I honestly think this is a bad move. We saw what happened in Western Australia when they brought in their WA cultural heritage laws which were a disaster and they had to repeal. I reckon, and this is the same as the Nature Positive plan, they’re going to hold it off until after the election and they may well be in partnership with the Greens in a hung Parliament. It will be worse than we thought it ever would be. And this is what we need to be alive to in the lead up to the election.
Andrew Bolt:
Well, now I’m starting to see why it really needs to be out in the open now and not in the witches brew that we’re probably going to get after the election. Jonathon Duniam, thank you so much for that. Thank you for the rain report, too. My brother will be pleased since he’s chairman of your dams down there.