TRANSCRIPT – DOORSTOP INTERVIEW, PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

Angie Bell MP

Shadow Minister for the Environment

Shadow Minister for Youth

Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP INTERVIEW

PARLIAMENT HOUSE, CANBERRA

30 October 2025

Subjects: The introduction of Labor’s unbalanced and unworkable environmental law reforms

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

ANGIE BELL:

Good afternoon, everyone. We’ve seen Minister Watt deliver his National Press Club address, and there’s a few things I would like to talk about from that. And one is he talked about an inflated bureaucracy, and that he’s not a fan of inflated bureaucracy, but what he’s doing is putting an EPA in place that will balloon out the public service, and he couldn’t answer the question on exactly how many new staff would be in that EPA. He also talked about indigenous engagement, yet the Minister actually forgot to engage with indigenous people, as we heard on the ABC this morning. That was reported.

There were a few things that the Minister talked about that weren’t exactly, shall we say on the ball. And the question for Australians is, can the minister be trusted with reforms in the EPBC Act, which, of course, is here, it’s pretty thick. Can the Prime Minister be trusted with these reforms for the Australian economy? Because it would be a handbrake on productivity. It would be a red light for investment and a green light for investment to flow offshore (sic) in this nation, if these Bills were to be passed right now. Now he also said there would be demonstrable gains for business and for the environment. Yet, we’ve heard the Business Council of Australia actually outline that there would not be any net gain for business if these bills were to pass the parliament.

So, we’ll move forward to the Senate Inquiry, and we’ll work our way through these Bills so that we understand exactly what some of the unintended or intended consequences would be if this Bill were to go through the parliament.

JOURNALIST:

Given the size of the Bill and the complexity of the Bill, is there any scenario in which you think you can get to a point where you can support this piece of legislation before the end?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, I’ll continue to negotiate in good faith, continue to have meetings with the minister and the department if required, to see if there’s a way forward. But at the moment, these bills simply cannot be agreed to by the coalition.

JOURNALIST

Is there still a possibility that you can come to a deal?

ANGIE BELL:

Look, I’m not going to rule anything in or out, because we have, of course, the Senate inquiry, which is due to report back in late March, as we’ve seen through the Senate this afternoon, so I’m not going to jump ahead of that to actually say whether we will strike a deal or not. What Australians should be wary of is the Minister striking a deal with the Greens. Australians should be scared of some of those ramifications if the Labor Party strikes a deal with the Greens and these bills go through as they are.

JOURNALIST:

We also saw the Minister say today that no one was going to get 100 per cent of what they wanted. The implication being he acknowledges that he won’t get 100 per cent of what he wants, but he said probably it would be possible for all the people negotiating to get 80 per cent what in the bill is in the 80 per cent that you definitely want.

ANGIE BELL:

Well, obviously there are some recommendations, some of the recommendations from the Graham Samuel review that the minister has taken on board that the coalition agrees with, and they are the national standards. And also there is some merit in some of those regional plans, but we will work through all of the concerns that I brought up this morning to make sure that Australians get the best deal. But it’s not our job to make a bad Bill better, and that’s why we wrote to the Prime Minister suggesting that we split the Bills in order, you can see why now, in order to get the best outcomes for Australians when it comes to the environment, and of course, when it comes to jobs, when it comes to industry and investment in our nation.

JOURNALIST:

Isn’t that literally the job of the Senate to make a bad Bill better?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, I think the Bill, the way it is right now, is not tenable. It does not deliver gains for business, as we’ve heard from the BCA, and so the coalition right now cannot agree to these bills. It has gone to the Senate inquiry. And so, the public will have the opportunity, and all the stakeholders will have the opportunity to pull it apart, as will the Senate.

JOURNALIST:

Graeme Samuel this afternoon told SBS he fully endorses this legislation, including the EPA, which was not a specific recommendation of his, he said he’s unsure if he’s reading the same bill as the Coalition. What is your response to that?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, Graeme Samuel did a great job at having a look at the EPBC Bill five years ago, Labor has failed to pass legislation in the last term of government, and let’s see how they go again this term. But at the moment, these Bills in their current form cannot be passed.

JOURNALIST:

Does it have any weight that the author of the review that this legislation is based on is urging the Coalition to support it?

ANGIE BELL:

I would say Graeme Samuel’s recommendation was not to have an EPA. It was to have a commissioner. That’s one of the recommendations. Another one was the national standard and how, that’s how the national standards would apply to the EPBC Act. This is, you know, it really is, about moving these bills forward and in their current state, they’re not tenable.

JOURNALIST:

Separate environmental matters. Unlikely, the Prime Minister is going to attend the cop summit in Brazil next week. Do you have a view on whether he should go or not, given the government’s bid to host in Adelaide, and does the opposition particularly care whether Adelaide gets it next year?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, certainly this has been going on for a long time, and I think it would be good if a decision were made. I know that it’s between Australia and Turkey in terms of the next COP and so I think it would be good if we had a resolution on this.

JOURNALIST:

I’ll just ask about the national interest exemption that allows the Minister to ignore environmental projects. Are you comfortable with the way that that exemption is drafted? Does it provide enough certainty around which projects could be exempted?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, I think what we need to do is have a close look at everything that is in this Bill. These Bills. There are actually seven bills. This is one of them. We need to work through those details, and the Senate inquiry process will do exactly that.

JOURNALIST:

Last night, [intelligible] did urge both major parties of government to come to a conclusion to pass this legislation quickly. What would need to happen, what concessions would need to be made? And where are your negotiations up to with Minister Watt?

ANGIE BELL:

We’ll continue to talk with the Minister. We’ll continue to talk with the department about our concerns on this Bill, and ultimately, it will be up to the Minister whether he does a deal with the Greens that Australians should be frightened of, or whether we can come to a position with the Coalition.

ENDS.