The Prime Minister has left nature in limbo after surrendering to the demands of mining and big business in the crucial final sitting week for parliament this year.
Last week was a hectic week in Canberra as the Albanese government negotiated to get a long list of unfinished parliamentary business completed ahead of next year’s election.
We were hopeful and worked hard to ensure that these final Parliamentary sittings would include passage of improved and strengthened Nature Positive laws, setting up a new national EPA and delivering an urgently needed initial step in the long-promised overhaul of our national nature protection law, the EPBC Act.
The week started well with fruitful negotiations between Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and senate cross benchers whose support was needed to get the new laws through.
But just as the deal was ready to be delivered, the Prime Minister intervened and blocked the package, caving in to the demands of mining and business interests opposed to the reforms. We saw mining and business groups lobbying furiously against these reforms, and their big dollar scare campaigns were enough to sway the Prime Minister to personally step in and block the EPA going ahead.
The failure to get the Bills through now means that there is a big question mark over whether Albanese government will deliver anything of substance on its promise of national nature law reform before the next election.
What was on the table?
The deal on the table was a modest and sensible one which would have seen a new national regulator, Environment Protection Australia (EPA), established under legislation, a new national data body, Environment Information Australia (EIA), and a legal framework for developing National Environmental Standards.
The Standards– a set of nature protection rules - were the new addition to the package, added as part of the compromise to get the Bills through the Senate. The proposed amendments were sensible changes consistent with Albanese government policy which would have allowed work to get underway on developing and implementing new national environmental standards, delivering urgently needed improvements to nature protection.
How did we get here?
Before we get to what needs to happen next, some context is important to understand the frustrations with the Albanese government’s failure to deliver on their promised reforms and why it is so important to keep the pressure up on the Prime Minister and his government.
This time in 2022, the new Albanese government was full of promises. In December 2022, Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek launched the Albanese government’s Nature Positive Plan, promising new laws into Parliament by the end of 2023.
But late 2023 came around and promised consultation on the new laws was shelved for another process (the “lock up” consultations) on the now delayed reforms.
And then in April 2024, the government changed course again – this time after pressure from mining and business interests – announcing that the reforms would now proceed in stages with the so called “stage 2” reforms including the new EPA and some increased penalties and new enforcement tools. These are important reforms but well short of covering all of the strengthened nature protections urgently needed to fix our broken national nature laws.
The proposed new laws were introduced into Parliament in May and, thanks to the PMs intervention last week, remain stuck in the Senate.
The failure to get these Bills through last week, and the lack of progress on other long overdue reforms, means that the urgent task of national nature law reform remains unfinished business.
As we look to an election next year, it’s difficult not to see the last couple of years as a squandered opportunity, with the government failing to take up the parliamentary support for strong nature laws and instead caving into the business and mining interests who oppose these reforms.
Nature needs the law reform the Albanese Government promised, to stop climate and nature-wrecking projects being waved through, scrap the loophole that exempts native forest logging, and provide up-front protection for threatened animals and plants.
The reality is that business needs these law reforms too. An EPA will make more certain, predictable decisions, and national standards will guide where it's OK to develop and where nature must be protected. The business community should be up in arms that a few mining magnates prevented law reform that would help them do business more sustainably and with greater certainty.
What can you do?
With an election soon and nature in serious strife, we need leaders willing to listen to us, the people – not the big polluters determined to protect their nature-wrecking ways.
Sign the pledge for climate and nature and tell the people that want to represent you they must be ready to solve the extinction crisis to get your vote.
They need to get the message loud and clear that nature needs strong laws and that the broken EPBC Act needs to be fixed.
