Environment Bill passes Senate as Greens cut deal with Labor

A package of environmental reforms passed the Senate due to disapproval from the Coalition. Rex Patrick It reports what has changed and what has not changed.

The bill has some clear gains for the environment.

There will be the National Environmental Protection Agency and the National Environmental Standards; but these standards have not yet been defined by the Labor Government.

native forest protection

The draft law, prepared as a result of the Greens’ negotiations, also stipulates that local forest areas will be subject to national environmental standards within 18 months.

Supporting this change, the Government will create a $300 million fund for the forestry industry to support employment and finance equipment to modernize the industry.

In their contribution to the debate on the changes, the Greens argued that they were the beginning of the end of native forest logging.

In his response to Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie during the bill’s committee stage, he suggested the story might not end the way the Greens thought it would.

Watch this space.

Coal and gas sector approvals unaffected

The laws will allow fast-tracking of projects, including renewable energy and housing projects.

This is a good thing.

Both Greens leader Senator Larissa Waters and Greens environment spokesperson Senator Hanson-Young claimed a victory by removing coal and gas projects from the fast-track process, although by not including climate emissions as part of any approval process, this is business as usual for the Government.

There is no victory here.

Labor will continue to approve big coal and gas projects were doing this.

More gas. Labor passes twenty fossil fuel approvals

The big coal and gas cartel has nothing to fear from this law.

net gain

Net gain with issues (as reported by) MWM) remains on the Bill despite Senator Waters announcing in his second reading speech that the Minister will no longer have the discretion to override projects that are not approved on grounds of national interest because they have unacceptable environmental impacts.

From ‘net zero’ to ‘net gain’. Platypus-possum exchange rate

Unacceptable environmental impacts are defined in the bill as impacts that, for example, have a significant impact on world or national heritage properties, seriously disrupt the ecological character of a Ramsar wetland, or cause serious damage to critical habitat for listed threatened species.

land clearing

The Greens also managed to secure tougher approvals for land clearing.

Calling the legislation “shameful” and a “rushed dirty deal”, Nationals Senator Susan McDonald expressed concern that these new high land clearing standards would harm Australia’s food security.

Perhaps the well-intentioned senator might suggest that, in light of the changes, we stop growing cotton and almonds for export and return some of the Murray-Darling water to other food crops.

I can’t see that happening though.

The Greens have finally stopped giving the “water trigger” to the states.

Is it a good deal?

The Greens admit they didn’t get everything they wanted.

The question is: did the Greens agree prematurely to meet Environment Secretary Murray Watt’s self-imposed deadline for passing reforms, depriving them of further improvements such as incorporating climate into approvals and ending coal and gas approvals?

We will never know. In my opinion they could have held out for more.

Further scrutiny of the amended bill would certainly have been beneficial. The Greens often tout themselves as advocates of transparency and scrutiny, and their record is good. But not today, they reached an agreement and joined the Government in enacting the law with only a token discussion.

In fact, there was no compelling reason to finalize the legislation today other than the Labor Government’s desire to achieve a political victory at the end of the year. Perhaps the Greens, worn out by the election results in May, may want to end the year with a self-declared victory.

The real question now is what happens next.

As is often the case in politics and government, the devil is in the details; in this case, what is specified in the legislation and what is not.

Will the Greens be fooled when the Government sets out its enforcement policy and Minister Watt finally tabled the National Environmental Standards? We can be almost sure of this.

Biggest annual drop in climate emissions since COVID