Israel strike Beirut; senior Hezbollah figure Haytham Tabtabai killed; Barnaby Joyce mulls One Nation defection after dinner with Pauline Hanson; Labor environmental reforms to pass Senate this week
Environment Minister Murray Watt said the government’s contentious environmental reforms will pass the Senate this week before parliament reconvenes for the summer recess, as negotiations with the Greens and the Coalition continue.
Watt told the ABC this morning: “I have no doubt that Parliament will pass these much-needed reforms to our national environment laws and that will happen this week. The only question now is whether it will happen with the support of the Coalition or the Greens.”
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“Both the Coalition and the Greens have a really important choice to make about whether they want to be part of reforming these laws in a way that strengthens our environmental protections while speeding up approval processes for things like housing and renewable energy, or whether they want to sit on the sidelines and see the other pass them by. That’s going to happen this week,” he said.
Labor, which needs the support of the Coalition or the Greens to pass the bill in the Senate, offered concessions to both parties. The Greens have been offered changes to local forest logging and approval of coal and gas projects. The coalition has proposed amendments that would limit the federal EPA’s environmental protection “stop work” orders and requirements and provide more evidence to justify them.
“The coalition wants more changes to support business. The Greens want more changes to support the environment. And you’ll remember, what I’ve always said throughout this process is that we need a balanced package that delivers wins for both the environment and business. It’s not one thing or the other. We have to have both,” Watt said.
“We believe that the package that we introduced and passed in the House of Representatives provides that balanced package. So ultimately, I suspect we will lean towards whichever of these two parties is more prepared to approach the package that we passed in the House of Representatives.”
