Protection bill passes lower house, but lacks senate support

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The government's environmental protection reforms have passed through the lower house, but the bill doesn't yet have the support needed to pass through the senate.

Transcript

00:00Negotiations are still taking their time to get to where they need to be for the government

00:06to pass this bill through the Senate.

00:08This afternoon it was passed through the lower house.

00:11The government pushed it through, as they are able to do with control of the lower house.

00:18This environmental protection bill is something that they've really been wanting to move along,

00:23especially in these last two weeks.

00:25It's something that previous environment ministers have tried to change, including Tanya Plibersek.

00:31They say that the current Protection Act is broken and not doing the job that it should

00:36be, except it hasn't got the support of the Coalition or the Greens, and the government

00:42will need that support in order for the bill to be passed.

00:46The Coalition say that it will increase red tape and make it harder for businesses to

00:52get approvals for projects.

00:54The Greens say that it doesn't do enough to protect the environment, and they want

00:57to see loopholes closed to not allow things like deforestation and logging.

01:05The government, as I said, has pushed this through the lower house, but negotiations are

01:09still ongoing with the Coalition and the Greens to pass it through the Senate.

01:15The Minister for Environment, Murray Watt, was up just minutes ago.

01:20Here's what he had to say about the negotiations.

01:22There is no excuse for the Coalition and the Greens to continue the blocking tactics that

01:30they have employed for too many years, and to get in the way of these very much needed

01:34reforms.

01:35There will be Senate committee hearings between now and when we return for the last sitting

01:39week, and that will give people an opportunity to put forward their case.

01:43The Coalition and the Greens need to listen.

01:45But they need to get with the program and get these laws passed so that we can deliver to

01:49the environment and business.

01:52And so that environmental reform isn't the only bill to have been passed today.

01:56What else has made progress in Parliament?

01:59There's been a bit of movement on a couple of different things today, Jo.

02:02The Freedom of Information Bill has been passed through the lower house.

02:07This is amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, which again the government acknowledges is

02:12a system that isn't working as it should.

02:15It takes a long time for applications to be approved.

02:18People are being knocked back.

02:19And so they've proposed a bunch of changes to try and make the system more efficient.

02:24Except it's received a lot of backlash for them being, for them limiting transparency.

02:31So things like removing the ability to submit an anonymous request means that whistleblowers

02:36and journalists won't be able to put in anonymous requests for government information.

02:41Again, the government doesn't need, they control the lower house and so they don't need support

02:48to pass it through there.

02:49They've passed it through today.

02:51But it's looking like it's doomed to fail once it reaches the Senate.

02:55There's not a lot of support for it there.

02:57We've also had a bill passed through the Senate, so it's now law, that introduces, it allows

03:03the government to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organisation.

03:09This is an Islamic organisation that the government believes were behind some of the anti-Semitic

03:17attacks on Australian soil.

03:19So that has passed through the Senate today.

03:21And we've also seen a bill introduced to Parliament to see quotas enforced for Australian content

03:28on streaming platforms.

03:29So things like platforms like Netflix and Stan and Amazon, they will need to have a certain

03:34amount of Australian produced and made content on their platforms so that Australians have more

03:41access to Australian stories.

03:43And what's happening with the Liberal Party's position on carbon emissions reduction?

03:48Well, we've had a big update just in the past 10 minutes.

03:53This question that's been plaguing the Liberal Party this week, what is their position on net

03:58zero?

03:59We've just received a copy of the WIP's memo, which is the message from the leader of the

04:04opposition to her party with three key dates.

04:07And I'm just reading off them here.

04:09The Liberal Party room will meet in Canberra at midday on Wednesday the 12th, so Wednesday

04:14next week to discuss its stance on net zero.

04:18So that means all parliamentarians within the Liberal Party will be there.

04:22The shadow ministry, so the Liberal leadership team, will then meet on Thursday to finalise

04:28the Liberal Party's position.

04:30And then on the Sunday, there'll be a joint party room with the nationals to come to a

04:35joint party decision.

04:38We can't say where in that process it will become public knowledge what the Liberal Party's

04:42position is, whether they'll state it after that leadership meeting or whether it will

04:47be after the joint party meeting.

04:50But the final sitting week of the year begins on the 24th of November, so we'll certainly know

04:54what their stance is by then, Jo.

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