The Hon. PENNY SHARPE (Minister for Climate Change, Minister for Energy, Minister for the Environment, and Minister for Heritage) (14:01): This morning I tabled the NSW State of the Environment 2024 report. That report is prepared every three years by the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority [EPA] to provide the Parliament and the State with an update on the main environmental issues and trends facing New South Wales. A wide range of New South Wales agencies and independent specialists and scientists contribute data, information, analysis and interpretation, and help to review the contents for accuracy. It is a huge and complex piece of work, and a great example of cross-government agency collaboration. The report is available online and is easily accessible. I warn members that, when tabled in the House, it was over 600 pages long. Reading it online will save some trees and provide the same information.

I thank all the government departments, public servants and scientists who had input into that very important report. What the report tells us is not comfortable. It is not comfortable for us to read, but we must read it if we are going to turn things around. More broadly, I outline the trends in relation to the topics, and the areas that are getting worse. Six of the topics are stable, but the environmental quality is low or poor; and three are getting better, which is good news, but it is only three. They include emissions and air quality, for a start. Five topics have trends that are yet to be mapped, and we will continue to do the work on that. The report holds all of us to account. The state of nature and our natural environment are the responsibility of every person in New South Wales, as well as, primarily, the governments of today, yesterday and tomorrow.

The report delivers an independent scientific assessment of the state of the environment across seven broad themes: land, waters, air and atmosphere, biodiversity, climate, people and industry, and drivers. There is also, for the first time, a Voice of Country theme. Prepared by the EPA's Aboriginal Peoples Knowledge Group, it provides the perspectives of Aboriginal people, their knowledges and their sciences, and it is woven throughout the report. I thank the Aboriginal Peoples Knowledge Group and the Aboriginal initiatives team at the EPA for their valuable contributions. First Nations people have been here for many thousands of years longer than we have. They understand country in a way that Western science does not. It is at our own peril that we do not listen to them or involve their thinking about how to care for country. They did a much better job of caring for country for thousands of years. We have a lot to improve on since we have arrived.

Other improvements this year included changes to the report's website. While I have tabled a printed copy today in Parliament, it is better to look at the document online. It can be accessed through a dedicated website, which includes links, charts, maps and videos. This year there is also a set of one‑ or two-page report cards summarising where we are at on each of the measures. The report makes for sobering reading, and we must not shy away from that. This is an opportunity to understand the improvements that have been made, but also to identify where more effort is needed. The Government takes the report's findings very seriously. They will inform our policies, actions and initiatives towards climate resilience, sustainability and halting the loss of biodiversity.

There is good news: Air quality is good. It is meeting national standards for the majority of time, and it is improving. I report also that New South Wales has the largest network of air-quality monitors in the Southern Hemisphere. That network is helping us to understand and improve air quality for everyone. The same goes for our drinking water. The good news is that we are using less water, even in urban areas not currently subject to restrictions. Households have continued with the water-saving habits they developed during times of drought, which means more of our water is available more of the time, and we are not wasting a drop.

The Hon. Rose Jackson: Hear, hear!

The Hon. PENNY SHARPE: I knew the Minister for Water would be very happy about that. New South Wales is also using more renewable energy. In 2022-23, 34 per cent of the State's electricity was sourced from renewable energy compared with just 19 per cent in 2020. That trajectory is predicted to increase year on year into the future. Another pleasing trend is the drop in litter pollution. Litter is one of the matters we sometimes forget about or wave away as a small issue of lolly wrappers on the pavement, but our litter has a huge impact on the health of our natural environment, including on our soils, waterways and wildlife. In question time today members discussed the impact of plastics that are entering the human body. That mostly happens as a result of plastic in the environment.

Litter has fallen by 51 per cent since 2021-22, indicating that the State is on track to meet the 2030 target of a 60 per cent reduction. But let us not overstate the good news. The report laid bare serious challenges to our environment. For example, the amount of waste we generate has outpaced population growth, rising from 18.7 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 22.4 million tonnes in 2022-23. That means, averaged out, every person in New South Wales, including every baby and every child, produces the equivalent of three small cars of waste every year. That is not sustainable. It comes at a time when I have warned—and will continue to—that our landfills are nearing capacity. We need more investment in recycling and resource recovery. The Government is addressing those issues. I apologise for boring members of the House continually about them, but we cannot shy away from them.

The State's first Waste and Circular Infrastructure Plan has now been released, and we are working out how to replace the landfill space that we are running out of. We are looking at the waste levy and whether we have the right levers to encourage people to reduce their waste and to get things out of landfill. There is also consultation on a much harder conversation about the role of energy from waste in our system into the future. We have introduced food organics and garden organics mandates and legislation to enable mandatory product stewardship for problem waste such as batteries. The EPA is also working on our re-use plan and our plastic strategy. Those are yet to come. Another serious area of concern, which I consider to be the twin crisis to climate change, is the state of our biodiversity.

Most simply, biodiversity is the health of our plants, animals and ecosystems—whether nature is functioning as it is supposed to. Healthy and flourishing biodiversity is crucial not just because we love our animals, plants and beautiful landscapes, but because it is crucial for the health of our people and economy and, fundamentally, the existence of humans on earth. It is not a "nice to have"; it is a necessity. Unfortunately, I report to the House that the number of threatened species listings in New South Wales has increased by 36 since December 2020. In 2024 more than 600 plant species and 300 animal species in New South Wales were threatened and at risk of extinction. The extent of native vegetation continues to decline, and the ability of remaining habitats to support native plants, animals and ecosystems has dropped to 29 per cent of their original capacity.

Those confronting figures are despite the many millions of dollars invested by all governments to try to arrest this deterioration. It is clear that we need more effective environmental laws to protect species and their habitats. The New South Wales plan for nature sets out our priority actions, which include the State's first nature strategy and reform of the Biodiversity Offsets Scheme. We need to shift from merely mitigating environmental decline to actively repairing and restoring. The Government is working now on the actions that we have committed to. We are in the early stages of our Plan for Nature and reforms to the Biodiversity Conservation Act, some of which have already been passed.

As for our net zero target, the good news is that the report shows that net greenhouse gas emissions have fallen 27 per cent since 2005. I was pleased to release the latest update in the projections that say that we are on track to reducing emissions by 46 per cent by 2030. Before everyone has a go at me, I know that we have to get to 50 per cent by 2030, and we are absolutely determined to do that. But we welcome the small improvement from the last projections, driven by our work in renewable energy. We can succeed, and we will. Strategic long-term planning is essential, and we are doing that through initiatives such as the New South Wales climate adaptation plan, the development of the new net zero plan and the incredible work that the EPA is doing with licence holders in this State to map how they get to net zero.

We have also placed consideration of climate change into the planning system. The Government is not tabling this report to gather dust. It helps us to guide future actions. They include protection of habitat through private and public land conservation; work on our plan for nature and the Biodiversity Conservation Act; many actions which make up our response to the waste crisis; and delivering on our net zero and our renewable energy targets and road map. We will continue to work on the measures that may not gather headlines but which are crucial to the health of our environment, such as the health of our soils and protection from invasive species.

One of the easiest things we can do is to remove as many invasive species as possible. That is a cost‑effective, quick and easy change we can make to the environment. Air quality is improving, but there are still pollution hotspots, and we have work to do. How we balance the needs of towns, irrigation and the environment in maintaining the health of our inland rivers is a constant discussion. We are determined to meet that test. We also need to work to restore the loss of soil from erosion across the State. This work is shared across the Cabinet table with many Ministers, in recognition of the fact that the environment is everyone's business, because everyone relies on it. However, it is not just about Cabinet and Ministers in government. It is about the commitment by all of our parliaments to stay the course on protecting our environment. It is about working with every organisation.

I give a particular shout-out to the environment groups and the Landcare groups—the people who decide every day to stand up and try to look after their local environment, in whatever way that is. Sometimes we do not agree, but their work is absolutely essential for the protection of our environment into the future. I respect every person who does that work, and I encourage them to keep going. The data is clear: We need bold, evidence‑based solutions to safeguard the environment. The findings of this report provide the impetus to drive real change and reinforce the actions we are taking. We must leave nature better off than how we found it. We have to protect what is left and restore what has been harmed. We have to work with anyone who wants to join us as we try to do that, because no one person can do it alone.

We have started along that path, but we must do more, and we will continue to do so. In the next State of the Environment report, we want to see the improvement that our environment needs, that our communities demand and that our economy requires. I thank everyone who has been involved. I acknowledge the Parliamentary Secretary, who is a fantastic champion. She will be reading this report probably with a bit of despair but a renewed commitment to taking the necessary actions for the health of our environment.

The Hon. AILEEN MacDONALD (14:14): We have heard that the State of the Environment report is a welcome update, but I do not think that is quite right. I see it as report with hazard lights and sirens blaring. It provides an overview of how our State is tracking on key environmental issues, and the story is not good. It is a call for help. This year's report will bring no comfort at all to conservationists or members of the public. It paints a worrying picture about the management of our environment and the lack of action on key environmental issues. Perhaps one of the most worrying elements of this report is an area that, prior to the election, the Government had a lot to say about: the management of land—specifically, the extent of native vegetation, clearing of native vegetation, habitat condition, ecological carrying capacity, and the number of threatened species.

Equally as concerning is the lack of progress on wetlands and water management. The Opposition will be reviewing and sharing the findings of this report with environmental stakeholders and communities across New South Wales, who are asking serious questions about what the Government intends to do with these shocking results. Communities and groups most impacted by these environmental challenges are rightly outraged. The time for excuses and hand-wringing is up. We are facing serious environmental challenges. The State of the Environment report makes that much clear.