Albanese charges ‘Mr Fix-It’ with racing through green law overhaul
By Paul Sakkal and Nick O'Malley
An urgent overhaul of Australia’s broken environment laws will be fast-tracked into parliament this year as Labor scrambles to greenlight projects to meet targets on home building and emissions reduction.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants new Environment Minister Murray Watt to deliver a revamped version of the controversy-plagued Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act before December – six months earlier than originally planned.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Environment Minister Murray Watt.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Former environment minister Tanya Plibersek hit a wall of opposition last year from big miners and the West Australian Labor government when negotiating the terms of the act and creation of a new environment protection authority.
Albanese controversially took Plibersek’s work on an Environmental Protection Agency off the agenda in November last year following intense pressure from WA – just as the Greens believed they had a deal with Plibersek to pass the legislation.
Watt, a key ally of Albanese previously charged with cleaning up the CFMEU, was handed the task of fixing the bill, a job made less difficult when influential former treasury boss Ken Henry declared in July that fixing the green laws was more important than tax reform.
Watt secured support at last week’s economic roundtable to rework the reforms from the business lobby – which represents miners – experts and unions.
“It was clear from last week’s roundtable that there is very strong support, across business, environment and community representatives, for serious and urgent reform to deliver stronger environmental protections and faster and simpler project approvals,” Watt said in a statement.
“I have consistently heard that we need to move quickly to reform these laws as delays mean holding up investment and more environmental destruction.”
The act dictates that the federal government assesses projects set to have a major impact on a matter of national environmental significance, such as threatened plants or animals.
Environmental regulations have obstructed final approvals for 76 renewables projects requiring federal environmental assessment in NSW, Victoria or Queensland. Housing Minister Clare O’Neil has also blamed green tape for a backlog of about 25,000 homes awaiting sign-off.
A report in December last year from the Clean Energy Investor Group – disputed by Plibersek at the time – said the time required to gain federal approval for a wind or solar farm blew out from an average of 505 days in 2018 to 831 days in 2021.
Environmental groups say stronger laws are needed to protect Australia’s fragile ecosystems from degradation and overdevelopment. But Labor is also under pressure to speed up approvals to meet its climate and housing targets, both of which are behind schedule.
The accelerated timeline for Watt’s green reforms represents the second announcement off the back of Labor’s productivity summit last week. Labor used the roundtable to announce a pause on building code and accelerate its moves to reform environmental laws and hit drivers of electric vehicles with a road-user charge.
In 2021, former competition watchdog chief Graeme Samuel published a scathing review of environmental laws and their failure to protect the environment. His recommendations included the creation of a set of environmental standards and an Environment Protection Agency.
The Albanese government faced tough opposition to the reforms from mining-reliant Western Australia, where Albanese was targeting a set of electorates crucial to holding government at the May election.
WA Premier Roger Cook successfully lobbied Albanese to abandon a deal with the Greens last term that would introduce a so-called “climate trigger” that could have stopped mining projects going ahead because of their greenhouse gas emissions.
The Australian Conservation Society’s head of biodiversity Brendan Sydes said language from the government at last week’s productivity roundtable made it clear it was determined to pursue reform. He said the existing system was seen as failing by business groups and environmentalists alike.
Sydes said miners might be able to accept the creation of a federal environment protection agency as long as the minister was able to intervene quickly in major decisions. Environmental groups could also accept the agency, even though they might wish for a regulator with greater power.
“As long as there was some transparency that could be a path forward,” he said.
Labor committed to creating national environment standards and the agency during the 2022 election campaign. The bill will still need the support of the Greens in the Senate to pass.
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