Australia will miss many of its most important goals unless its environment laws undergo a long-overdue transformation, an economic heavyweight has warned.
Ken Henry – a former Treasury secretary, NAB chairman and prime ministerial adviser – has urged Australia to overhaul its main environment act as the Labor government pursues a litany of economic reforms.
Its plans to build 1.2 million houses by 2029, boost renewable energy, and develop the critical minerals industry have taken attention away from the languishing Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.
But Dr Henry says Labor’s ambitious proposals cannot be achieved without major reform.
“If we can’t achieve environmental law reform, then we should stop dreaming about more challenging options,” the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation chair will tell the National Press Club on Wednesday.
“To put it bluntly, there is no chance of Australia meeting stated targets for net zero, renewable energy, critical minerals development, housing and transport infrastructure without very high quality national laws.”
These goals are also an answer to Australia’s flagging productivity which the government has been determined to address in its second term.
“Economics has, for the most part, ignored the most important constraints on human choices,” Dr Henry will say.
“Our failure to recognise that the laws of nature affect the set of feasible choices available to us is now having a discernible impact on productivity – and things are getting worse with accelerating speed.
“We need to break the deadlock.”
Reforms to main environment laws would need to ensure Commonwealth, state and territory governments can co-operate for a shared purpose, finalise effective national standards and establish an expert, independent decision maker in the form of a national environmental protection agency.
For more than two decades, the country’s main environment legislation has remained largely unchanged, even after a landmark review released in 2021 found the act was not fit to address current or future challenges.
Labor came into office with a promise to fix the laws, but its proposals have stalled following staunch criticism from scientists, environmentalists and mining industry groups.
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