Murray Watt dismisses fears about override powers in environment laws

Environment Minister Murray Watt has rejected worries that the sweeping ministerial powers in Labor’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s environment laws could be misused.

Environment Minister Murray Watt at the National Press Club in Canberra. His reform bill faces a tricky path in the Senate. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Environment Minister Murray Watt has rejected concerns that the sweeping powers contained in Labor’s proposed overhaul of the nation’s environment laws could be misused, as former Treasury secretary Ken Henry warns of their potential abuse.

Senator Watt on Thursday introduced to parliament Labor’s changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, which include so-called “national interest” powers allowing the minister to approve select projects and override environmental checks.

When determining the ­national interest, the minister “may consider” Australia’s ­defence and security needs, or an emergency, the new bill says, meaning projects, such as wind turbines or mines, could be signed off even if they don’t meet environmental standards.

Asked about the provision at the National Press Club, Senator Watt said he was “not going to speculate” about whether the proposed override powers – which would allow the minister to personally approve projects – could be used for unintended purposes.

“I’m not going to give ­hypotheticals about the kind of situations they could be used,” he said. “I think the bill in referring to those types of matters around defence and national security and national emergencies gives you a good indication.”

Senator Watt stressed that use of the override would be “rare” and noted it was a recommendation of a 2020 review of environment laws that was written by former competition tsar Graham Samuel and commissioned by former environment minister Sussan Ley.

Pressed on why certain types of projects that the national interest exemption should not be used for were not explicitly mentioned in the legislation, Senator Watt did not rule out such a change. “If others want to raise those kind of things over the course of the debate, we’ll listen to them, as we will to every other proposal,” he said.

But Dr Henry, now chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, told The Australian it “really was a risk” that the exemption could be misused by a future minister.

“As soon as it’s possible to do so, the opportunity should be taken to codify the exemption,” Dr Henry said.

When the legislation was presented to the Labor caucus on Tuesday, backbencher Ed Husic, who was demoted from the industry portfolio in May, raised concerns that a future Coalition government could misuse the override power, arguing Labor would have opposed the override if it was proposed by the ­opposition.

The intervention marked the first time a Labor MP had broken ranks to raise concerns with the government’s planned changes to the EPBC Act.

Conservation groups have also noted that the power could be open to abuse, citing former opposition leader Peter Dutton’s pledge before the May election that he would use existing powers to fast-track Woodside’s ­controversial North West Shelf gas project.

Currently, national interest powers are generally limited to disaster-related activities – for ­example, bypassing lengthy ­approval processes to clear hazardous trees near roads after a bushfire.

The bill faces a tricky path through the Senate, where both the Coalition and the Greens – support from either will be critical to the legislation’s passage – are vehemently opposed to the bill in its current form.

While the former argues the reforms will introduce further complexity and duplication for businesses, the latter argue it provides insufficient protections of the environment and does not adequately address projects’ impact on climate change.

In a further headache for Senator Watt, who is hopeful of passing the changes by the end of the year, the Senate on Thursday passed a motion extending a Senate inquiry scrutinising the legislation until March 2026.

The inquiry was previously set to report by late November, giving Senator Watt time to pass the reforms before parliament rises for the year.