‘No illusions’ Labor’s environmental reforms will pass
Labor insists environmental reforms aimed at speeding up project approvals while balancing nature protection would cross the line into requiring the minister to make further concessions to reach a deal.
As the federal parliament returns to its final session week of the year, the Albanian government has yet to secure the numbers it needs in the Senate to pass the bill.
“Make no mistake about it, we will introduce these laws this week and it will be either with the coalition or with the Greens,” Murray Watt told reporters in Canberra on Monday.
“They have an important choice to make about whether they want to be part of this process and work collaboratively with us, or sit on the sidelines, complain and see us make a deal with the other side.”
In a bid to win over the Greens, Labor has promised stricter rules on logging of native forest trees under the new law, in addition to removing the provision allowing coal and gas projects to bypass the main approval process.
Changes have been proposed to the Coalition to limit “stop work” orders and require a project to declare that carbon emissions will be discharged.
Senator Watt said he was “very confident” an agreement would be reached based on discussions over the weekend.
“We are willing to make further concessions to pass these laws, because it is in no one’s interest to stick to the existing laws that we have now, which have been completely broken,” he said.
Opposition media spokeswoman Angie Bell said the coalition was “in no rush to fail” and wanted to work constructively with the government.
“The ball is in the minister’s court,” he told ABC radio.
“I need to see the changes in terms of these key issues and there is a list of seven points, but there is more than what I have presented to the minister.”
Australia’s Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national news channel and has been providing accurate, reliable and fast-paced news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We inform Australia.
