Anthony Albanese’s overhaul of environmental watchdog fails to win support

A concession by Anthony Albanese to weaken his proposed environmental watchdog by removing its decision-making powers has failed to win the endorsement of the Coalition and attracted the fury of the Greens.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. Picture: NewsWire / Gaye Gerard

A concession by Anthony Albanese to weaken his proposed environmental watchdog by removing its decision-making powers has failed to win the endorsement of the Coalition and attracted the fury of the Greens, who accused him of angling for a “dirty deal with the Liberals”.

Opposition environment spokesman Jonno Duniam told Sky News on Monday he was in negotiations with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek over the watchdog – to be known as Environment Protection Australia – but said the government’s legislation still had “no friends”

“No one’s willing to support it, and that is on the government,” Senator Duniam said.

The EPA, aimed at restoring trust in national environmental law, was to be given responsibility for issuing permits and licences, project assessments, decisions and post-approvals, as well as regulation including compliance and enforcement, as part of the government’s Nature Positive law reforms.

Coinciding with his full ministerial meeting in Western Australia, the Prime Minister made clear on Monday that he was prepared to water down the powers of the agency as part of a bid to secure the passage of the legislation through parliament and win business support.

Mr Albanese said the government was considering whether its focus should be restricted to compliance, and stressed the government was in talks with the Coalition and crossbenchers to try to strike a deal.

Senator Duniam argued the comments from the Prime Minister were aimed at trying to distract from the decision of Ms Plibersek to block a tailings dam for the $1bn Blayney goldmine, which the mine owner says has sent the project back to the drawing board. “The Prime Minister wanted to say something that he thought would appeal to WA voters,” Senator Duniam said.

Ms Plibersek told Channel 7 the review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act by Professor Graeme Samuel found the nation’s environmental laws were not working.

“We’ve got one set of legal changes through the parliament already. We’re on our second tranche of changes now,” she said.

“We’ve been saying that if there are sensible suggestions made by the Greens or the crossbench or the Liberals or Nationals to win their support, we’re happy to look at those changes.”

But Greens leader Adam Bandt on Monday dismissed the prospect of a deal with Labor, saying: “If Labor does a dirty deal with the Liberals to further weaken our already weak environment and climate laws, Labor will lose any shred of environmental credibility it still thinks it has.”

Greens environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said “another cave-in to polluting corporations will accelerate extinction, fuel the climate crisis and destroy critical habitat for endangered species like our precious koala”.

Glenn Walker, from Greenpeace Australia Pacific, accused Labor of floating a “backdown” on a promise to “end the extinction crisis and deliver a strong new nature law”.

“We are deeply alarmed by reports today that Prime Minister Albanese is considering caving in to billionaire miners and greedy developers railing against environmental protection,” he said.