‘Make good on what they promised’: Greens ultimatum on Labor’s signature policy

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek must create new powers to block fossil fuel projects and crackdown on native forest logging under a Greens ultimatum to support her signature environmental reform.

Greens environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young declared her party would not deliver the necessary support to pass Plibersek’s Environment Protection Authority (EPA) bill unless the government agreed to both demands.

Greens environment spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young and Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen.

However, this risks inflaming Australia’s climate wars with the opposition, which is already campaigning against Indigenous heritage protection over mining sites, the government’s renewables plans and proposing instead a nationwide rollout of nuclear energy.

“We’re still holding out on all of this because we haven’t had enough concessions from the government,” said Hanson-Young, the manager of Greens business in the Senate.

“The fundamental building blocks are climate and native forests.”

Labor promised before the May 2022 election that it would establish an EPA with new powers to greenlight or block development applications, and to enforce compliance with nature laws. Plibersek’s EPA would raise the maximum fine for environmental breaches from $15 million to $780 million.

Debate over the Environment Protection Authority bill is set for Thursday in the Senate, where the Greens hold the balance of power.

Plibersek has been negotiating for months with Peter Dutton’s opposition – which is expected to vote against her reform – as well as the Greens.

Greens have not detailed how a climate trigger would work, nor the legal changes it would endorse on native forest logging.

The party has proposed a climate trigger that would force governments to assess new developments, such as coal mines, gas fields or factories, based on greenhouse emissions and impose automatic bans if a threshold is exceeded.

A crackdown on native forest logging would be achieved by rescinding a deal that shields logging operations from federal law. Known as Regional Forestry Agreements, they enable state governments to regulate the industry without federal oversight.

Plibersek committed in 2022 to impose federal laws on Regional Forestry Agreements by creating national environmental standards that would rule out damage to critical habitats – but the deadline for this promise has been shelved.

Ecologists say national standards are crucial to deliver another of Plibersek’s 2022 promises – ending native species extinctions.

Plibersek also promised in 2022 to release draft laws for a comprehensive “nature positive plan” by the end of 2023.

After missing the deadline for the legislation overhaul, she decided to pursue the changes in stages, starting with the EPA.

The government previously stated it was not considering a climate trigger, but Plibersek told this masthead in response to the Greens’ demands that environment reform required “common sense, cooperation, and compromise”.

“But I think Greens voters would be disappointed if the Greens Party delayed a tough new environment watchdog like the EPA with strong new powers, or if they tried to stop fines for serious environmental crimes going up,” she said.

Plibersek last week prodded a sore point for the Greens, citing its role in blocking the Rudd government’s climate policy in 2009 on the grounds it was inadequate.

“If the Greens party doesn’t support the government’s EPA laws, this could be their Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme mistake mark two,” Plibersek said.

Business groups, environmental advocates and the Greens have endorsed the creation of national standards and Hanson-Young accused the government of delaying the reforms to avoid inflaming the debate with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton over environmental protections.

“Without needing to, this government has watered down the promise they made to the electorate,” Hanson-Young said.

“They have one of two choices now – further gutting [of reform] in order to satisfy Peter Dutton or to make good on what they promised the electorate, which was laws that actually protect nature and put nature on a positive footing.”

Dutton has spearheaded a campaign against Plibersek’s ruling last month to block the proposed location of a tailings dam for a mining project in Central West NSW, and has promised to cut green tape that he claims had cost the resources sector billions of dollars.

“The environment minister still hasn’t delivered updated national environmental laws, as was promised. All that is being proposed now is a new bureaucracy in the form of a federal EPA to administer these broken laws,” opposition environment spokesperson Jonathon Duniam said last week.

“The Labor government are anti-development, anti-mining and anti-jobs.”

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