‘Done over’: Labor dismay over PM’s call to ditch environment watchdog

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is scrambling to calm Labor MPs dismayed by his decision to override Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and cancel her deal with the Greens to establish a national environment watchdog.

Albanese called a number of MPs on Thursday morning to reassure them Labor’s commitment to creating an environment protection agency was not dead after he personally intervened on Tuesday night to cancel an imminent deal to legislate the agency in the Senate.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek during question time on Tuesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The prime minister reassured MPs – some of whom face a serious threat from Greens candidates at the next election – that the bill to create the agency could return to parliament in February and that the plan to create the environmental agency was not dead.

Labor committed during the 2022 election campaign to create national environment standards and an agency with the power to levy heavy fines to protect nature.

As the government scrambled to strike deals in the Senate with the crossbench to pass a raft of other legislation on the final sitting day of the year, there is a growing expectation in Labor ranks that parliament will not return next year.

While Albanese has always insisted his plan is to go full term and schedule the election in May, this masthead has been told by eight Labor MPs the poll would either be called in late January for March 1, or after the West Australian election for April 12. In either case, the government would not hand down another budget.

Albanese killed the deal to create the agency over concerns that a deal with the Greens would be weaponised by the federal opposition and the resources sector before the next election.

West Australia Premier Roger Cook said on Wednesday the EPA “was going to disadvantage West Australian industry”. The West Australian newspaper reported Cook had convinced Albanese to make the decision.

But in an interview on the ABC’s 7.30 program, Albanese ducked a suggestion Cook had helped influence his decision to scrap the bill, stating that he had simply informed the premier Labor did not have the numbers to pass the bill without amendments.

“I spoke to the premier of WA about my visit to WA next week ... I informed him that we didn’t have the numbers to get the bill through,” Albanese said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and West Australian Premier Roger Cook at a school in Perth in September.Credit: Trevor Collens

Albanese denied that he discussed with Cook the electoral implications of the creation of an EPA in Western Australia, and stated the bill would not pass the Senate this year but could return to parliament in February.

“The Senate will consider it in February ... we fully expect to be sitting in February.”

Speaking publicly for the first time since her bill was scrapped, Plibersek told 2GB that senator Katy Gallagher, who organises government business in the Senate, had committed that the bill would come back in February.

She said Cook had not called her “about this legislation at all” but added that she hoped the Senate would vote it into law next year.

The Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN), which is the biggest grouping in the party’s membership with 500 branches on the eastern seaboard, is horrified by Albanese’s failure to progress the agency Labor promised to create.

LEAN has campaigned for a federal environment watchdog since 2017, including most recently with posters produced in the last month. The establishment of the agency has been listed on Labor’s national policy platform since 2018 and an election commitment since 2022.

“The Labor membership has worked hard to deliver the EPA over nearly a decade. The level of disillusionment is high today. We feel pretty done over,” said LEAN national co-convener Felicity Wade.

One Labor MP said they were concerned about a backlash in their seat, but another MP said the proposed agency was unpopular in Western Australia – where Labor needs to hold on to a raft of seats – and suggested the EPA was dead “in the water”.

WA Labor MP Josh Wilson said the government had been ready to create the agency “but unfortunately after months of obstruction, the Greens have delayed their arrival in the land of common sense too long”.

“I’m glad we will return to our environmental reforms in the new year because Australia’s remarkable biodiversity clearly needs better protection. I hope all stakeholders can take a more sensible approach in 2025,” Wilson said.

Some MPs have suggested there were elements of the proposed deal with the Greens that would be unacceptable to the party, while others have backed Plibersek by stating she had not offered any concessions other than commitments to deliver what was already party policy.

It is understood that the Greens had sought and got agreement from Plibersek that in exchange for their support for the agency, Labor would establish national environmental standards.

“There was nothing on the table that wasn’t cabinet endorsed, existing Labor policy. It’s hard to see why we’d smash our own stated priorities,” Wade said.

Greens environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young on Thursday praised Plibersek’s role in negotiations and accused the prime minister of being captured by logging and mining industry interests.

“One minister I want to pay strong tribute to is Tanya Plibersek, an environment minister who was willing to talk and try and negotiate,” she said.

“The prime minister took the advice from Gina Rinehart, the mining lobby and the loggers.

“This election will be … a referendum on Mother Nature and we will make sure that it is at the top of the agenda.”

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