Deputy Speaker: I propose the question that the House do now adjourn, and I give the call to the member for Bradfield.

Nicolette Boele MP: Thank you very much, Deputy Speaker. What is one big issue shaping your future, and what is a meaningful action you want Parliament to take on it? Raise our voice, asks women and gender diverse people under 25 years of age to write a speech in response to that question.

We received many speeches from my electorate, all the more clear-eyed, moving, and honest than much of what gets spoken in this place, so it's my absolute pleasure to read two of them today.

The first is written by Eve, who is 13.

Our generation's told that we are the future, and yet it feels like people's actions are denying us a future.

Climate change isn't just something we hear about, it's affecting all our lives. In 2019, bushfires ripped through my neighbourhood, schools were evacuated, and friends lost pets and homes. Animals are becoming extinct. Droughts and floods are causing food shortages, water contamination, and loss of lives.

We keep prioritising short-term benefits and forgetting the long-term cost. We must not lose sight of the ongoing challenge of climate change, with other events taking place around the world. Each year, we increase the greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere, and global temperature has already risen by 1.5 degrees Celsius since 1910, causing 70% of coral reefs to die, among other things. If this increases by an additional 0.5 degrees, our coral reefs will be destroyed. I ask the Parliament to tax use of all fossil fuels to discourage use, then use the taxes raised to develop infrastructure for renewable energy, make renewable energy accessible and affordable for everybody, incentivise being net zero.

Educate our community on accessing environmentally friendly ways of running households, businesses, and schools. We need a today where our environment comes first, so that we can have a tomorrow.

And I have the second speech, which is written by Sophia, who is 23.

It's the year 2050. I'm 46 years old. Summer keeps stretching longer, and I tell my daughter that we can't go out to the beach today because the heat is too dangerous. Instead, we stay inside with the blinds closed, listening to the air conditioner hum.

I show her photos of the reef that I once dived and tell her about turtles, colourful corals, and fish that she's never seen with her own eyes. Bushfire smoke has become a familiar smell. We turn on the news only to see another flood, another community rebuilding, more families forced to leave the places that they once called home because they can no longer afford to stay.

And when my daughter asks, "Didn't people know that this was happening?" I don't know what to say. That is one possible future, but it doesn't have to be ours. The biggest issue shaping our future is the planetary crisis. And I've come to realise that this isn't just a climate crisis; it's a crisis of the systems that we've built.

Everything is connected from our oceans, our food, our economy, our biodiversity, our communities, and our well-being. Pull one thread and everything else moves. So today, Australia has a choice. As we prepare to co-host COP 31, we can help change the course of history.

I'm calling on the Parliament to take three actions: firstly, stop approving new fossil fuel projects; secondly, establish an ocean sovereignty fund to protect the ecosystems that protect us; and thirdly, ensure that young people have a genuine voice in the decisions shaping our future.

Because none of us has a crystal ball. Now the future isn't something we predict; it's something we create. And beginning with the choices that we make today. Let's create an Australia where our economy thrives because our planet thrives, where Indigenous knowledge and science shape the future together, where our Pacific neighbours are our partners, and where our oceans are protected because they protect us.

And where every young person has the opportunity to help shape the future they'll inherit. So when the next generation asks what we did when we had the chance to choose a different future, we can tell them that we chose courage.

I want to sincerely thank everybody who submitted to me their speeches for "Raise Our Voice." It was incredibly moving, very powerful, and today I've read just two around the issue of climate.

It gives me great confidence that these young people are using their voice that they have through their local representative to have their voice heard, and it's my sincere hope and aspiration that people in this house heed the voice of our young people who aren't yet able to vote, for example, and act in the long term for their futures.

Thank you, Deputy Speaker.

Speaker: Representatives from the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine, including immediate past president Dr. Stephen Gourley and president Dr. Peter Alley. Welcome to you all.

Give the call to the honourable member for Bradfield.

Nicolette Boele MP: Thank you, Speaker. My question is for the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment.

We're heading into an El Niño summer supercharged by climate pollution, and last week the High Court confirmed what's already common sense: climate pollution from our coal, no matter where it's burned, is our responsibility, and we should assess coal mine applications accordingly. Now, the application for the largest coal mine extension in New South Wales history is sitting on the federal minister's desk for decision.

Given he's the Minister for the Environment and not the Minister against the environment, when will the federal government reject this enormous coal and climate calamity?

Speaker: Give the call to the Leader of the House representing the Minister for the Environment and Water.

Tony Burke MP: Thanks very much, Mr Speaker, and I thank the member for Bradfield for the question.

It goes to a few issues. It goes to the High Court case, it goes to environmental approval, and it goes to action on climate change.

If I start with the High Court case, first of all, the court case does not relate to a Commonwealth decision. The court case was made quite specifically with respect to New South Wales law.

All federal decisions on environmental approvals are made under the EPBC Act, under federal environmental law. So the Commonwealth case doesn't have a bearing on the legality of decisions that are made under federal environmental law.

Secondly, as sometimes happens in questions in this place, there's a merging of environmental approvals with the decisions we take on action on climate change, and we use quite different mechanisms, as this Parliament has decided to do so, and as the member knows.

In terms of action on climate change, that's where we use the safeguard mechanism. And that's what we've been using to deliver significant outcomes in terms of action on climate change.

When it comes to environmental approvals, the Minister, when working through environmental approvals, has very specific issues to take into account. They're all based on international treaties, largely the powers contained in the EPBC Act. But they are separate to the mechanisms that we deal with respect to climate change.

My understanding is that Hunter Valley Operations have proposed an extension. It's an extension to existing mines in previously mined areas. The New South Wales State Independent Planning Commission has already given its approval with strict conditions.

The state approval does not pre-empt a federal approval, they're separate processes.

The National Environmental Protection Agency, and I'm very proud to say we now have a federal EPA, it’s currently considering the project and whether it should be approved under federal law.

All public submissions and advice from the Independent Expert Scientific Committee will be taken into account before a final decision is made. And as I'm sure the member would appreciate, while the matter remains under consideration, it's not appropriate for me to comment further.

Speaker: Give the call to the Honourable Member for Bradfield.

Nicolette Boele: Thank you, Speaker. My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. We know that Australia's species extinction crisis is due to habitat destruction, invasive species and runaway climate change. And now one in five Australian bird and mammal species are at high risk from H5 bird flu, including seabirds, black swans and seals.

Conservation scientists are calling for $200 million over two years to build that resilience of these critical species. Will the government commit that funding to give our wildlife populations the best chance of recovery?

Speaker: Call to the Minister for Agriculture, the Minister for Fisheries and the Minister for forestry.

Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I want to thank the member for Bradfield for that question. I know that she, like so many people in this place, are concerned about the impact of the H5 bird flu, and I know many members of the government have actually raised threatened species with me over many times in relation to what the government is doing.

And as I said, in this place many times we have invested early in $113 million investment and preparedness for the bird flu. Of that $113 million, $47 million has specifically gone to improving habitat and improving biosecurity for captive held threatened species, native species, with a focus obviously on birds and the mammals that will be impacted by the H5 bird flu.

The Minister for the Environment and the Environment Department also has another program which is $99 million for the saving native species, which is also about improving the habitat of threatened species. Since the incursion of the H5 bird flu, we've also unlocked an almost $25 million, it’s $24.8 million now with the States and territories, in terms of the response on the ground in relation to the H5 bird flu. And that includes the preparedness that is happening on the ground by the States and territories.

And I announced in this place yesterday that as part of that is the vaccination program. And I'm pleased to be able to say to the Honourable Member that the Victorian government has actually announced today that their state will begin vaccinating penguins, little penguins, and that vaccines from the Commonwealth have now arrived at Phillip Island with little penguins both at Phillip Island and St Kilda, to be vaccinated starting as early as next week.

As part of the vaccination trials. We have looked at particularly wild birds and vaccinations, knowing obviously that vaccination is just a complementary part of that process, and biosecurity is obviously our first line of defence. As part of the original $47 million investment, that biosecurity improvement has been really important, particularly for those threatened species that are held in captivity, so at lots of wildlife parks, including my own electorate. I've seen at Raptor Refuge, where they have protected wedgetail eagles, for instance, and mast owls, and made sure that they've improved their biosecurity in the separation from native wild birds to protect them, particularly in relation to their food and water supplies as well.

So there has been a lot of preparedness done to make sure that as a Government, we are doing everything we can do to protect our threatened species. And certainly from our Government, we know the biosecurity is the front line, but the vaccination and the vaccination program will also be complementary, and I look forward to hearing from other states and territories as they work on those vaccination programs.

But it is terrific news that we are going to start vaccinating little penguins in Victoria.