Labor ‘abandoning environment’: Brown

Bob Brown has attacked the environmental credentials of the Albanese government, accusing Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek of abandoning her responsibilities.

Former Greens Leader Bob Brown has attacked the environmental credentials of the Albanese government and accused Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek of abandoning her responsibilities towards environmental conservation.

Former Greens leader Bob Brown has attacked the environmental credentials of the Albanese government and accused Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek of abandoning her ­responsibilities towards conservation.

Ahead of sweeping new environmental reforms set to come ­before parliament in this term, Mr Brown said Ms Plibersek had left her core constituency in the ­progressive electorate of Sydney “out in the cold” in her ­attempt to improve the nation’s environment.

In a speech at the weekend, Greens leader Adam Bandt said the party was targeting the seat of Sydney at the next election over the government’s refusal to freeze rents and Ms Plibersek’s approval of coalmines.

Escalating the Greens’ attack on Ms Plibersek, Mr Brown said the direction the Labor government had taken for environmental reforms was “extremely alarming and concerning”. Mr Brown claimed Ms Plibersek was leaving nearly all regulation and management of the environment up to market powers.

The attacks come after Labor promised to establish a federal environment protection authority as part of a wider overhaul of the ­nation’s environment laws.

The legislation has not yet been released, but Ms Plibersek says the new federal EPA will have the power to enforce the nature laws and leave the minister with the power to intervene on a decision in sensitive situations.

Mr Brown said the proposal would see the government “washing its hands” of responsibility towards the environment.

“I think the whole direction the government is going with its environmental legislation is the wrong direction,” he said.

“They should be empowering the government to help the ­environment but what they are doing is putting it at arm’s length, and giving it all over to the EPA or the available marketplace so they can say well we’re not ­responsible.

“But they are responsible, they are the custodians of the law, and there is growing public alarm that the government is washing its hands of environmental ­responsibilities.”

The changes will be informed by the government’s response to the Samuel review, which found the law had failed to protect Australia’s vulnerable plants, animals and ecosystems.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Martin Ollman

Ms Plibersek told The Australian an independent EPA was ­supported by “every environment group including the Australian Conservation Foundation and WWF”.

“What Bob Brown is suggesting would hand unprecedented, unchecked powers to future Liberal and National party environment ministers,” Ms Plibersek said. “Does he really believe that having people like Barnaby Joyce and Matt Canavan make decisions on the environment is better than establishing an independent authority?”

Ms Plibersek is in active negotiations to secure passage of Labor’s nature repair bill, which will set up a market for biodiversity ­enabling landholders, including farmers, to sell credits to investors in exchange for improving the ­environmental credentials of the land.

Mr Brown said the bill was Labor essentially “monetising ­enviro­n­mental responsibility” by placing the value of nature into the hands of the private market.

“Clearly the legislation is monetising environmental responsibility. It’s on its way to handing the responsibility for the environment to the private market and placing environmental valuation into dollar amounts.

“It’s very alarming that a Labor government is so far down the line of removing responsibility from itself and handling it across to the market.”