Labor is facing an uphill battle as it tries to strike a deal in the Senate to pass major environmental law reforms.
Resistance from the Greens and the coalition suggests the proposed changes are unlikely to be adopted this week, the final sitting week of the year, despite Environment Minister Murray Watt expressing confidence it will.
The coalition is understood to have poured cold water on the prospect of an imminent deal while the Greens say the government’s offers to change the legislation have fallen short.
Meanwhile, conservationists have urged Labor to not side with the coalition to pass the reforms.
Australian Conservation Foundation chief executive Kelly O’Shanassy said negotiations were at a critical stage and a deal with the coalition would weaken “already bad legislation”.
“(Labor) should only negotiate with the parties that want to protect nature,” she said.
“The bare minimum they could do is make sure that coal and gas projects that are put out for assessment are actually assessed through climate impacts.”
The ACF says the new legislation would take Australia backwards by expanding the minister’s discretion over contentious projects like coal and gas, if deemed in the national interest.
But siding with the coalition would be a “catastrophe” for nature, as that would amount to weakening the already bad legislation, Ms O’Shanassy said.
Labor has extended an olive branch to the Greens, proposing to prevent a contentious “national interest” exemption being used to approve coal and gas projects if the party agreed to support its nature laws.
Greens leader Larissa Waters said the changes were “welcome” but weren’t enough to win her support.
The coalition has been offered changes to limit “stop work” orders, and wants a requirement for a project to report its carbon dioxide emissions to be dumped.
Liberal MP Leon Rebello said the legislation shouldn’t be rushed, admitting he hadn’t read the whole 1500-page bill.
“The fact they’re trying to rush it through the last two sitting weeks is just indicative of the fact they’re not prepared to front up and have a debate,” Mr Rebello told Sky News.
Senator Watt said based off discussions at the weekend, he was “very confident” an agreement would be landed within his desired time-frame.
Veteran conservationist and Greens co-founder Bob Brown criticised the proposed laws and said proposed amendments didn’t go far enough.
He used logging in Tasmania as an example of destruction that Labor could “stop tomorrow”.
“It’s the biggest cause of extinction of everything from koalas to greater gliders to critically endangered swift parrots and Tasmanian devils,” Mr Brown said.
“But the industry is being financed and subsidised by Canberra.”
Labor wants to pass the laws before the end of the year, but the senate committee reviewing it is not due to report back until March 2026.
The government says the reforms – which would set up an Environment Protection Agency – would provide stronger environmental protections, more efficient assessments and approvals, and greater accountability.
The environment minister would have the final say on rejecting project developments if they are deemed to seriously damage nature, or approve projects in the “national interest”.
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