TRANSCRIPT – ABC Radio National Breakfast with Sally Sara

Angie Bell MP

Shadow Minister for the Environment

Shadow Minister for Youth

Federal Member for Moncrieff

TRANSCRIPT

ABC Radio National Breakfast with Sally Sara

13 October 2025

Subjects: The Coalition working constructively with the government to achieve EPBC Act reform, Implementing the Coalition-commissioned Graham Samuel review recommendations, South Australian algal bloom devastation.

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

SALLY SARA:

Staying with federal politics and the government is in the thick of a fresh attempt to build consensus on a long-awaited overhaul of Australia’s environmental laws. It comes five years after a landmark review found the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act is quote, “outdated and requires fundamental reform”. Joining me now is Angie Bell, the Shadow Minister for the Environment. Angie Bell, welcome back to Radio National Breakfast.

ANGIE BELL:

Good morning to you and your listeners, Sally.

SALLY SARA:

You’ve been meeting with the Minister, Senator Murray Watt, about the government’s plans to rewrite Australia’s environmental laws. Are you close to locking in a deal?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, I wouldn’t say we’re close to locking in any deals prematurely, Sally, but I did have my third meeting with the Minister late last week and it a productive meeting. We engaged in robust discussion, as usual, to look at the EPBC Act reforms that he will put forward. We heard last week in Senate Estimates, the Minister rule out the climate trigger, which of course is the Coalition’s position on that. But we also discussed other areas such as regional planning, many of the recommendations that were in the Coalition-commissioned Graham Samuel review. So, it was a good discussion and those discussions will continue. The Minister has signalled that he will introduce the legislation as we head towards the next couple of sitting weeks. And so, there’ll be more meetings and hopefully we will be able to come to some kind of position because environmental laws are just too important to get wrong, Sally. And Australians deserve certainty around industry, around approvals, but also to stop the decline in our environment.

SALLY SARA:

So, from an opposition perspective, what do you think are the real sticking points right now?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, certainly I think regional planning, the Minister’s talked about go zones and no-go zones, and the Coalition, of course, is concerned about landowners’ rights, as we’ve seen in Victoria, where those rights have been taken over by intermittent energy, wind farms and solar farms. And so, we know that the devil is in the detail when it comes to this Labor Government. And we won’t know exactly where we’re at until we see the introduction of the laws and we can go over them with a fine-tooth comb. We’ll go through our usual party processes, but certainly there are still some concerns that we are discussing at the moment.

SALLY SARA:

Can the reforms be passed by the end of the year? Is that possible in your view?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, it depends what the details are. The Minister has signalled that there will be a Senate inquiry. That is his intention. And so, it really depends on how many of those Samuel review recommendations are in the legislation and what the sticking points are, what the details are and how they impact certainly regional Australia in particular.

SALLY SARA:

The Environment Minister says he’s been consulting with key environmental and industry stakeholders on these proposed new laws. Have you been doing the same? And if so, what’s industry and environmental groups, what are they telling you?

ANGIE BELL:

They’re telling me, Sally, and I have met with very many of them, dozens and dozens of them in Canberra and also have visited. I am doing some visits this week in North Queensland and next week in Western Australia as well, to speak directly with those stakeholders that these laws will impact. What we need to do is get the balance right and these reforms are well overdue. Labor had three years in the last term to pass some of these reforms. And of course, Minister Plibersek failed with that because she didn’t consult with the stakeholders, you know, widely enough. And so, it is time for these laws. They’re well overdue. Our environment is degrading. We need to stop that degradation. And we also need to provide faster approvals for industry and for jobs and certainty for sectors like mining.

SALLY SARA:

You’re listening to Radio National Breakfast and you’re hearing from the Shadow Environment Minister, Angie Bell. Angie Bell, you want the final say on projects to rest with the Minister rather than the Environment Protection Agency. Has this demand come up in your recent discussions with Senator Watt?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, certainly we have discussed a number of areas, Sally, but we do believe that under the Westminster system, the Minister should have the final say on approvals. And so, as I said before, we’ll see what the legislation outlines in terms of the detail. The Prime Minister has promised an EPA. We know that. He wants an EPA. We don’t want an EPA because it, of course, would be the eighth in the country. So, more red tape means longer approval processes. However, if there must be an EPA, then stakeholders are talking about what that looks like. And certainly we agree that the Minister should have the final say.

SALLY SARA:

Would you be willing to compromise on that it means the reforms get passed?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, we’ll have to look at that when it’s introduced into the Parliament and go through our usual party room processes and shadow cabinet processes as well.

SALLY SARA:

Given your discussions on this have been taking place over the past few months, has the Coalition taken a position on whether or not reform should be done in stages or all in one hit?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, I think in the last term of Parliament, the Minister had a tranche of bills. I believe it will be a tranche of bills this time again, but it will be done all at once is the Minister’s intention. However, I’m not the Minister, I’m the Shadow Minister and so, I will have a look at what those bills outline in detail at the time when they are introduced into the Parliament. I don’t think we’ll see them before then, but we’ll have a close look, see what they outline, and then we’ll make our decision from there.

SALLY SARA:

Turning briefly to South Australia this summer the state is preparing for the additional challenge of the algal bloom. A Senate inquiry into the disaster is due to report by the end of this month. What do you hope that report achieves?

ANGIE BELL:

Well, I went down to South Australia a couple of times and sat with those fishers on the Yorke Peninsula who have been impacted by this directly and it’s heartbreaking, Sally. These communities on the South Australian coastline continue to suffer and it’s concerning to hear that this algal bloom will go through the summer months quite possibly. So, we hope and pray that there’s going to be a weather event that will break all of that up. What we heard in the Senate inquiry was the impact on communities, on livelihoods, but also the environment, which has been devastated, underwater there around in the Gulf of Spencer. And so, really, I think the most important thing when it comes to the algal bloom is that the government was too flat-footed on this at both levels. And South Australians rightly feel let down that the Minister didn’t visit for some months. The Prime Minister was the last MP to stand on the beach in South Australia and look at the effects of the algal bloom. It was too little too late, and the funding that was put on the table was too difficult to apply for those communities. I think a faster response is what we would have done had we been in government and helped these communities much more.

SALLY SARA:

Angie Bell, thank you for your time this morning.

ANGIE BELL:

Thanks so much, Sally. Have a good day.

ENDS.