West Australian Premier Roger Cook says the Albanese government’s last-minute agreement with the Greens to overhaul national environment laws “could have been a lot worse” after securing a fast-tracked approvals deal with Canberra.

“It could have been better, from an industry point of view – but it could have been a lot worse,” he said.

Cook told a Chamber of Commerce and Industry of WA breakfast on Thursday that industry wanted to secure stronger concessions in the federal Environment Protection and Conservation Act reforms, but the final package had improved from previous drafts.

The reforms, which were agreed to in a deal between the Greens and Labor on Thursday morning, increase the federal government’s powers over state governments on matters of environmental protection, and include the creation of a federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Cook infamously worked in the background to help scupper a previous deal late last year, with the state’s miners concerned about the effect of more green tape on major projects up north.

He said the Greens’ changes around native forests and farmland clearing would not affect WA, as those protections were already in place in the state.

WA had pushed for clearer wording around “unacceptable risk” to the environment and secured some improvements.

However, Cook confirmed the state had failed in its push to give oil and gas proposals access to a shorter approvals pathway, but said WA would continue to treat major projects the same.

“In Western Australia, we continue to make sure that gas has an important role to play,” he said.

“We understand it’s important for the cost of living. We understand it’s important for the local industry. It’s important for the national economy. Resources continue to be the backbone of our economy.”

Speaking to the press after the event, Cook said Environment Minister Murray Watt called him late Wednesday night to discuss the deal ahead of the government’s announcement Thursday morning.

“Murray has confirmed to me that Western Australia will be the first state that he’ll do a bilateral [agreement] with,” he said.

“It should be [negotiated within] a matter of months.”

A bilateral agreement would allow WA to run a single environmental assessment that the Commonwealth accepted, removing the need for a duplicate federal process.

Cook said WA industry would have secured stronger protections if the federal Coalition had backed a bipartisan deal.

“Quite frankly, they’ve let the WA community down,” he said.

“There’s been a missed opportunity and that missed opportunity was to do an agreement with the Liberal Party which could have perhaps further reflected the concerns of the industry.”

CCIWA chief economist Aaron Morey said the federal government should waste no time in beginning negotiations with the WA government on a bilateral agreement.

“There have been some changes made [in the reforms] that provide a bit more certainty, but with 37 definitions within the act, we are still digesting the full list of those definitions,” he said.

Meanwhile, both WA’s peak mining body and the state’s leading conservation and environment organisation have raised concerns over the proposed reforms.

Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA policy and advocacy director Anita Logiudice said the real impact of the reformed hinged on national standards and regulations that were yet to be written, as well as “bilateral accreditation eliminating duplication and delivering federal and state assessments simultaneously”.

“The state and federal governments must now put their shoulders to the wheel to fast-track negotiations so WA can be accredited to deliver project assessments without delay,” she said.

Conservation Council of WA executive director Matt Roberts welcomed any negotiations to make the laws better, but said the reality of what the revised act meant for nature remained to be seen.

“What we do know, is that we still have an EPBC Act which remains highly skewed towards industry. We’ve had scientific evidence leading the discussion from the nature side, and mining, oil and gas groups lobbying for even less scrutiny at the other end,” he said.

“This bill has been rushed through in the last sitting week of parliament, despite there being a senate environment and communications legislation committee inquiry taking place right now, with findings not expected until 24 March.

“CCWA holds many concerns about the proposed amendments. Not the least of which is the potential devolution of approvals to state and territory bodies.

“We have a state government that famously took credit for sinking the last round of attempted reforms.”

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