Mr Speaker, you probably remember, as most people here do, the occasion on which One Nation in the Senate moved a motion inspired by a white supremacy slogan, 'It's okay to be white.' You also probably remember that the Liberals and the Nationals ended up voting with One Nation in relation to that motion, which they later apologised for. Perhaps not content with that as an example, the Queensland Liberals and Nationals are going one better by encouraging Queenslanders to vote for parties like One Nation and the Greens ahead of Labor in every single seat at the state election at the end of this year.

There are so many interests in the million square kilometres making up the Basin. The river system is called upon to provide water for human need, agriculture, cultural purposes, spiritual purposes, tourism, recreation, community life.  The Basin is home to over 30,000 wetlands, 100 of which are recognised as nationally important due to environmental, heritage or cultural significance. It makes up about 41 per cent of the total gross value of Australia’s agricultural production. 2.1 million people living in the Basin, and another 1.3 million people living outside it, rely on the Basin for drinking water.

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Streamlining Environmental Approvals) Bill 2020 amends the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, known as the EPBC Act, which is the primary piece of Commonwealth environmental legislation. The EPBC Act contains a statutory requirement to review the operation of the act every 10 years. The second of those 10-yearly reviews is presently underway. The government appointed Professor Graeme Samuel AC, one of Australia's most experienced regulators, to lead that review.

Today, in one of the opportunities that we get to speak in this parliament about our constituents, I wanted to speak about some very important constituents, and those are the people who've been working on the front lines throughout the COVID crisis this year. 

I regret to say that Australia is in the middle of a jobs crisis and an environmental crisis, and the Morrison government is failing on both counts. Never has that been made more starkly clear than in the most recent Auditor-General's office report, Referrals, assessment and approvals of controlled actions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This is perhaps the most damning Auditor-General report that anyone in this place has seen for some time.

The Migration Amendment (Prohibiting Items in Immigration Detention Facilities) Bill 2020 is a bill that, if passed in its current form, would allow the government to prohibit items such as mobile phones in detention centres. But there's a particular place of detention that I wanted to mention, and that's the one in my electorate, at the Kangaroo Point motel. That motel houses a number of people at the moment and has done now for many, many months. The government decided to establish what they call an 'alternative place of detention' at Kangaroo Point—but it is what most people would think of as a makeshift detention facility in a motel—some time ago. Regrettably, they didn't consult with me before establishing that facility, but nonetheless it's been established in my electorate. There have been a number of people in that APOD, as they call it, for a long time now.

Last week, LNP senator from Queensland Amanda Stoker said that the Queensland Premier was 'the knee on the throat of businesses of Queensland, stopping them from breathing'.

Ms BUTLER (Griffith) (10:17): As at 3 June 2020, data shows that the fires and the initial impacts of the global pandemic have accelerated longstanding economic challenges under the Liberals. It's a litany of bad news, and it shows how out of touch the Prime Minister is to think that somehow our economy is just going to snap back to the way things were before or that he can just turn off the tap without damaging the economy further.