Labor strikes deal with Greens to pass long-awaited overhaul of nature protection laws | Australian politics

Labor struck a deal with the Greens to overhaul federal environmental protection laws on the last day of parliament’s sitting of the year, ending a five-year battle to implement Graeme Samuel’s plan to fix the broken system.

The Greens have agreed to support Labour’s rewrite of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act after winning further concessions from the government amid tense and lengthy negotiations. The deal will sideline Sussan Ley’s Coalition, which has refused to give in to her demands for business-friendly concessions in return for backing the legislation.

_{Sign up: AÜ Breaking News email}

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the deal just after 8am on Thursday, saying the changes would herald “a new era for the environment and productivity in Australia”.

“This is a landmark day for the environment in this country,” he said. “It is also a good day to do business in this country by providing greater certainty, reducing delays and ensuring we deliver better results and increase efficiency.”

The deal would pave the way for Labor to pass the legislation through the Senate on Thursday, giving Albanese a major political victory by the end of 2025. Albanese said following talks with the Greens the government had agreed to impose more environmental standards on the forestry industry.

The prime minister also said the government had established a $300 million fund for the forestry industry to support employment and finance equipment to modernize the industry.

“We are removing and repealing exemptions in the EPBC Act for high-risk land clearing and regional forestry agreements, ensuring they comply with the same rules and standards as other sectors,” he said.

“This is about using science and evidence to prove that all forestry in Australia is carried out to the highest standard. The government is supporting forestry and timber workers through our forest growth fund, which will invest in new equipment and facilities to enable the modernization and reprocessing of the industry.”

Albanese was actively involved in the final stages of the talks, speaking directly to his Greens counterpart Larissa Waters, in a bid to resolve the weeks-long dispute. He praised the “maturity” of Waters and the Greens’ environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young during the debates.

Albanese said he offered to meet with Ley to discuss environmental legislation, but the Coalition was not as open to negotiations as the Greens. He said that beyond the demands they have publicly expressed, they have flagged more changes they want for their support.

Labor’s Senate leader, Katy Gallagher, said the government, after reaching a deal with the Greens, would pass 10 bills through the Senate on Thursday, the scheduled last day of parliament for 2025, including environmental legislation as well as $50 million in funding for the ABC.

Greens Leader Larissa Waters said the package “improves our environmental laws” after “robust and lengthy negotiations”.

“This moves us forward on new protections for native forests. It moves us forward on protecting against land clearing, and more importantly, it stops the 30-day approval of coal and gas as the government proposed in the original bill,” he said.

Waters said removing the fast-track option for fossil fuel projects was the only concession the government was prepared to make on climate change.

“The government has refused to include climate considerations in the law and that is why we need greens in Parliament and we will continue to fight for this,” he said.

Greens environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said removing the current exemption for native forest logging under regional forest agreements within the next 18 months would “deal a blow to the logging industry that now knows Australians cannot cope with the destruction of our beautiful native forests”.