In one night, the Federal government snuck through two anti-environment policies care of Energy Minister Keith Pitt and *Environment* Minister Sussan Ley.
The first, dropped to journalists early last night, and quite buried this morning, was a joint announcement from Pitt and Ley that the Morrison Government’s impending budget would fork out $62 million to remove the need for project-specific approval under environmental laws.
Journalists from Guardian Australia and AFR who received the drop reported that this money came from a larger $130 million pool “designed to further speed up environmental approvals”.
The Guardian criticised the plans for weakening nature protections. As is tradition with “drops”, Sussan Ley is “expected” to make the full announcement today.
The second announcement, made publicly by Keith Pitt, was that the Morrison Government is considering 10 bids to develop offshore oil and gas in the anchorage released by the government last year.
Pitt used the Ukrainian invasion as justification.
Callum Foote was a reporter for Michael West Media for four years.