Management Plan Requirements for Nature Reserves
Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Board of Management Functions) Bill 2025
House of Representatives
Senate
Assent
Introduced by: Senator the Hon Murray Watt (ALP)
Links to official parliament websites
Effects of this bill
If this bill passes, it means that:
The Debate
What different members said when this bill was debated:
Ms BELL
“I rise on the matter of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Board of Management Functions) Bill 2025. The bill adjusts the EPBC Act, specifically in relation to our Commonwealth national parks, including the iconic and deeply loved Kakadu National Park, the alluring Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and the beautiful Booderee National Park.”
“First Nations peoples have been the custodians of this great land for tens of thousands of years. Today we meet on Ngunnawal and Ngambri country, and I pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging. My electorate of Sturt is on Kaurna land, the traditional lands of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. The Kaurna people have been the custodians of this land for 60,000 years.”
“I heard the member for Sturt mention the eradication of feral pests. This is a debate, after all, and I acknowledge that in her contribution. I well recall when I took then prime minister Scott Morrison to parts of Queensland to look at the drought. We’re always in the country of drought.”
Tom French ALP
“It is a great honour and privilege to be in this place. But I must say it is an absolute sight to behold something so rare: the member for Goldstein and the member for Riverina joining together in unity to express the one thing they do agree on, which is to fill their policy vacuum with their hatred of the Labor Party. I’m not sure of the relevance of some of their speeches—but I digress.”
Dr RYAN
“I rise to speak to this amendment to the EPBC Act. The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Board of Management Functions) Bill 2025 extends the existing arrangements for management of several jointly managed Commonwealth reserves—the Kakadu National Park, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Booderee National Park—all of which are located on Aboriginal land.”
“I move: That all words after ”That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: ”whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House: (1) notes that: (a) in the words of the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance, the current approach is ’largely focused on regulating the destruction of First Nations Cultural Heritage, rather than its protection’; and (b) decision…”
Tim Ayres ALP
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. I seek leave to have the second reading speeches incorporated in Hansard. Leave granted. The speech read as follows— First Nations people have been looking after Country for tens of thousands of years. They have an enduring connection to the land, sea and sky.”
Jonathon Duniam LIB
“It’s a delight to be able to make a contribution this evening on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Board of Management Functions) Bill 2025. It’s been a long time coming, but it is great to be here finally making this contribution.”
Richard Dowling ALP
“I also rise to speak in support of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Board of Management Functions) Bill 2025. The bill is brief, but its impact is significant. It protects the continuity, partnership and integrity of joint management of our most iconic national parks: Kakadu, Uluru-Kata Tjuta and Booderee.”
Larissa Waters GRN
“Yesterday the Senate marked 40 years since the return of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park to the Anangu people. The joint management of the park since then has strengthened custodianship and recognised the Anangu people’s relationship with the land.”
Dorinda Cox ALP
“For more than 65,000 years Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have cared for land, country, sea and sky. Our knowledge systems have sustained the world’s oldest continuing cultures and remarkable biodiversity on this continent. I’m a proud Noongar Yamatji woman, and I know that when we talk about protecting country, we’re not talking about land in an abstract way.”
Kerrynne Liddle LIB
“I rise today to speak on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Board of Management Functions) Bill 2025. We’re actually here today because the Labor Party hasn’t done its job. This bill actually addresses that. The coalition, however, supports this bill.”