Submission to the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Nature Repair Market Bill June 2023

By way of background, in February 2023 I provided a submission on the second round of consultations on the Nature Repair Market (NRM) Bill exposure draft released by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW). My submission is in the public domain, and I attach it (as Appendix A) as an integral part of this submission that I hope members of the Committee will consider. That earlier submission drafted just over three months ago focused on the potential impacts of the proposed NRM framework on First Nations lands and interests. Arguably some of my concerns have been addressed by minor additions and amendments to the tabled NRM Bill that I will highlight. But such additions do not address the first order issue of whether this framework legislation is either properly structured or likely to achieve its stated objects. In other words, one can tinker with a proposed law without considering whether such a law is warranted. In saying this, I am acutely aware as a veteran contributor to policy and legal reform processes that the Albanese Government is determined to pass this law already making budgetary allocations for its further development in the current (2023–24) financial year, with an expectation that a Nature Repair Market will be operational by 1 July 2024. This leaves one with the dilemma of whether to merely make minor recommendations to improve the current proposal for new law; or to continue to highlight what might be fundamental flaws in the proposed law that warrant its overall reconsideration. In this submission I try and straddle the horns of this dilemma by doing both.