Ms PLIBERSEK (Sydney—Minister for the Environment and Water) (12:03): by leave—At last year's federal election, Labor promised a fresh approach to leadership and the environment. We said that we would do things differently: renewing Australia's relationships abroad, particularly in the Pacific; listening to our neighbours; working in the region for peace and prosperity. At the same time, we promised to put the environment front and centre—back where it belongs. Crucially, we recognised that these ambitions can only succeed together—that, without a serious environmental agenda, it would be impossible to establish trust in the Pacific, and that, without global cooperation, all of our good intentions on the environment would fall short. That was the vision we took to the last election. And that's what we've spent the last 18 months delivering. One of the first things that I did after being sworn in as the minister for the environment was to travel to Portugal for the UN Ocean Conference. I wanted to send a message: that Australia was once again accepting our responsibility as a global leader on the environment. One person who welcomed this message was the French President, Emmanuel Macron. He told the Australian contingent: 'You are back. We need you in the Indo-Pacific strategy, and climate and oceans is part of that strategy.'Protecting nature is a human rights issue. It's an economic opportunity. It's also a foreign policy issue. It's a security issue. Just this year, we have witnessed: the hottest-ever month on record, in July, followed by the hottest August and the hottest September; Antarctic sea ice was at its lowest coverage on record; and 12 million acres of Amazon rainforest burned to the ground. These are three snapshots from our triple planetary crisis—the crisis of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, a crisis demanding leadership abroad and action here at home. Climate And that's why, immediately after taking office, our government submitted stronger climate targets to the United Nations: legislating net zero by 2050; passing our safeguard reforms through the parliament; doubling the rate of renewable projects being approved; and getting cheaper, cleaner renewable energy into our grid. This is how we become a renewable energy superpower at home, and it's becoming increasingly essential to our relationships overseas. Climate and clean energy are now officially the 'third pillar' of our US alliance, and we've just signed an official agreement with the US Environmental Protection Authority, working to protect the environment and share critical information and data. Biodiversity We are addressing all three aspects of our triple planetary crisis—climate, pollution and biodiversity loss. Last December, I was proud to lead Australia's delegation to Montreal for the UN Biodiversity Conference, where we campaigned for a new global agreement to protect nature in every country. There, in Montreal, a week before Christmas, 196 countries agreed to the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, a landmark agreement to stop new extinctions, to halt the spread of invasive species, to restore degraded environments and to protect 30 per cent of our planet's land and sea by 2030. As the Australian Conservation Foundation said afterwards: And for the first time in a long time, Australia played a leading role in improving the agreement. Australians led from the front in Montreal. We were a force for ambition. And we are implementing that ambition here at home, delivering on our 30-by-30 commitment—protecting 30 per cent of our land and 30 per cent of our seas by the end of this decade. Since coming to office, we have added an extra 40 million hectares of land and sea areas under protection, adding to our national estate by growing our marine parks system, creating new Indigenous Protected Areas and, crucially, by supporting conservation on private land. We are also delivering on our pledge to stop new extinctions in Australia with our stronger national environmental laws, with a new EPA, for the first time a national EPA, to enforce those stronger laws on the ground; with our Nature Repair Market bringing new funding to the work of protection and restoration; and with more than $500 million to save native species and deal with weeds and feral predators. This is work that begins by measuring what matters in our budget—tracking biodiversity loss, land protection, air quality, waste and climate change. These commitments on 30 by 30 and zero new extinctions are supported by every state and territory. And last week, all of the environment ministers agreed to set four additional targets—on restoring nature, reducing the impact of invasive species like feral cats, building the circular economy and minimising the impacts of climate change on nature. By adopting these targets domestically and updating our national biodiversity strategy, we breathe life into our international agreements and we encourage other countries to follow our lead. A second historic win for global conservation was the UN High Seas Biodiversity Treaty, which was finalised in March after years of negotiation. The high seas cover more than 60 per cent of the world's surface. They don't belong to any single country, but it's where the fish and the whales travel, it's where pollution congregates. And now, for the first time, we have a framework to establish marine protected areas on these high seas. When the treaty opened in New York Australia was one of the first countries to sign on, and we're looking to give that agreement extra weight by supporting new high seas protected areas in our region. We are also helping our Pacific neighbours to sign and ratify the treaty, with $3 million of assistance. At home, we have tripled the size of the Macquarie Island Marine Park, adding an area of protection bigger than Germany—one of the largest conservation decisions made anywhere on earth at any point this year. It's a decision celebrated by ocean lovers around the world. And, in Queensland, we're protecting our beautiful Great Barrier Reef; improving water quality, dealing with crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, phasing out dangerous gillnet fishing within the World Heritage area and blocking a coalmine that would have risked polluting the marine park—work that UNESCO acknowledged was making 'significant progress for the reef'. It's work that stopped the site being listed as 'in danger'. We're also finalising management plans for our marine parks in the Indian Ocean territories. At the other end of our region, we're driving an international push to protect Antarctica and the Southern Ocean from exploitation by campaigning for the new east Antarctic marine park, which would protect over one million square kilometres of penguin and whale habitat in an area the size of New South Wales. And we are continuing Australia's historic leadership on whale protection, as vice chair of the International Whaling Commission. We're upholding the moratorium on commercial whaling, ensuring the survival of these amazing creatures. Pollution Our oceans are, by their nature, global, which is why we also have to deal with that third element of our triple planetary crisis by fighting for an ambitious global treaty on plastic pollution. Our neighbours in the Pacific see the terrible impact plastics are having on our region. In the ocean to Australia's north, we are pulling out ghost nets that have drifted into our waters—nets that can be six miles long, killing turtles, dolphins, sharks and fish. I have made it clear on a number of occasions that I want to see a plastic-pollution-free Pacific in our lifetime. In November last year, Australia joined the High Ambition Coalition to End Plastic Pollution, a coalition that aims to end plastic pollution by 2040. And in May this year, I travelled to Paris to make this case, together with our friends from the region. We are seeking a treaty with binding international laws which push countries to clean up the pollution that is choking our environment but which also makes producers take responsibility for the plastics that they are generating—and, of course, to minimise demand for plastics in the first place. This is the same philosophy we are applying to the circular economy here in Australia: building new recycling facilities and regulating packaging standards. Domestically, this is already taking more than a million extra tonnes of waste out of landfill every year. In our region, Australia is funding the Pacific Ocean Litter Project, with a $16 million contribution to reduce single-use plastics—money that is helping the Solomon Islands, for example, move off plastic bags, straws and polystyrene packaging in time for the Pacific Games this year. Australia has also been a leading force in the Rotterdam Convention on hazardous chemicals, seeking to ban the trade of chrysotile asbestos—a terrible material, like other forms of asbestos, that gets in the lungs, that causes mesothelioma and that is killing workers around the world who handle it. And here I want to acknowledge the perseverance of our union movement in driving this campaign. Direct support Our government is backing global action; we are adding ambition to international agreements. We are also giving direct support to countries in our region, helping other countries protect their mangroves and seagrass beds with our Blue Carbon Accelerator Fund, reviving thousands of hectares of mangrove forest in Indonesia, in the Philippines and in Madagascar. It's aiming to increase mangrove coverage by 20 per cent this decade—helping fish and birds breed; and protecting coasts from storm surges. Here at home, we are restoring these vital carbon sinks in Queensland, in Tasmania and South Australia on the Sunshine Coast, in Hobart and in Port Gawler. Our international development program is also assisting our neighbours deal with their environmental challenges across the Indo-Pacific. For example, with our help, Palau is currently building its first utility-scale solar farm and battery storage facility, with all the social and economic benefits that flow from that. In the same spirit, we are helping Pacific countries build their weather-monitoring and prediction services through our Bureau of Meteorology. We're working with local agencies to better forecast their climate, oceans and tides, helping them deal with emergencies and climate change. And we are collaborating with our neighbours on other areas of science and research, bringing together reef and ocean managers from across the Pacific, led by the Australian Institute of Marine Science. That's because if we share the same problems, we should actively share our solutions. Australians live in the most beautiful country in the world, and we have a duty to protect our World Heritage areas: those places with outstanding universal value. Our government is investing in that national estate by doubling our funding to national parks like Uluru Kata Tjuta and Kakadu. And we are actively extending that by progressing World Heritage nominations for Murujuga Cultural Landscape, Cape York, the West Kimberley and the Flinders Ranges. We are using this experience to grow our Indigenous World Heritage profile, with $5.5 million for First Nations to lead future bids. As the Prime Minister said last week in the Cook Islands: We have listened to the needs of our Pacific neighbours and are committed to addressing our shared challenges … Of course, we do this because it's what good neighbours offer each other. But we also do this because it's in our national interest. A stable Indo-Pacific, a sustainable planet, a safer world: that is Labor's vision. It's a vision shared by friends in our region and by partners around the world. And next year we are inviting these partners to join us at the Global Nature Positive Summit in Sydney, building on our government's support for the Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosure, getting businesses to incorporate nature into their decision-making. We want to bring the best environmental minds to Australia from every continent on earth, showcasing examples of successful conservation, sourcing new investment for restoration and protection, and keeping the momentum going after Kunming-Montreal and in the lead-up to COP 16. We're all on a journey here—a journey we're supporting in the Pacific and around the world, while doing the necessary work here at home: dealing with our triple planetary crisis on climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, working every day to protect more of what's precious, to restore more of what's damaged and to manage nature better for our kids and our grandkids. I present a copy of my ministerial statement.