TRANSCRIPT – FIVEAA Breakfast with Will Goodings and David Penberthy

Angie Bell MP

Shadow Minister for the Environment

Shadow Minister for Youth

Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT

FIVEAA Breakfast with Will Goodings and David Penberthy

30 October 2025

Subjects: EPBC Act reform; Murray Watt late to the party on algal bloom and now it’s the BOM; Natural disaster definitions.

E&OE…………………………………………………………………………………………………

WILL GOODLINGS:

In Canberra at the moment, there’s debate over an attempt to reform the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Murray Watt’s taken carriage of this for the federal government and they tried to get bipartisan support for some changes. The Coalition, though, have said that this process is, at the moment, looking like it’s heading towards a resolution that’s worse than the current set of laws. The Federal Shadow Environment Minister, Angie Bell joins us. Angie Bell, good morning.

ANGIE BELL:

Good morning boys, how are we this morning?

DAVID PENBERTHY:

Good, thank you Angie. So, what are the concerns with this proposal?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, I think the question I would ask South Australians is that you might have trusted Murray Watt with the algal bloom and look what happened. But currently he’s about to put on the table the EPBC reforms and he’s also speaking at the press club here in Canberra today. But it’s a 1,500-page document that we’ve just sort of received in full last night and there are some problems with it. The way it is at the moment is completely unworkable. Goodness me, it’s a red light for jobs, it’s an orange light for productivity, and it’s a red light to go offshore in terms of investment in our country.

DAVID PENBERTHY:

Can I change tack, Angie?

ANGIE BELL:

Sure.

DAVID PENBERTHY:

And ask you about the Weather Bureau?

ANGIE BELL:

Sure.

DAVID PENBERTHY:

This new website. Because as you were coming on, we were getting so many, we’ve had so many calls here. There’s something like 40 South Australian towns that have fallen off the map with this republished website. Murray Watt, he seems to be the master of arriving late at the party. It took him months to work out we’re having an algal bloom here. It’s taken him several days to work out that everybody in Australia seems to hate the new BOM website. What’s the Coalition’s view? Do you reckon they’ve stuffed it up? Do you think they should back to the old one?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, you make a good point, and that is fail one, algal bloom. Fail two, the Bureau of Meteorology website, which sits in Murray Watt’s Department, right? And let’s see what happens with the EPBC Act, but they certainly failed in the last term to try and reform that. So, you know, perhaps this is three failures for Murray Watt. Three strikes, you’re out.

WILL GOODLINGS:

The Bureau website’s a disaster. Whilst we’re on the topic of… Excuse me. Whilst we’re on the topic of talking about reforming legislation pertaining to the environment, any discussion on definition of a natural disaster so we might get their algal included in that in future?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, I’ve read quite a bit of what’s been put forward and I can’t say that there was much in there about that. But what there is a ballooning bureaucracy called the Environmental Protection Authority which will have a CEO that’s not accountable to the Minister, can only be sacked by the Governor-General. That’s a problem for wide, broad, sweeping powers. Big problem. The definition of unacceptable impacts, the definition of net gain in what I’ve seen is not definitive enough. It’s in there, so that we don’t know what it actually means. And scope one and two emissions reporting, which is currently under the safeguard mechanism, coming into the EPBC Act as well, which will be, again, more red tape and open to legal challenges.

DAVID PENBERTHY:

Yeah, he’s got a bit on his dance card, that’s for sure. Angie Bell, the Federal Shadow Environment Minister, thank you for joining us.

ENDS.