‘Big political price’: Labor steps up pressure on Greens to pass environment reform

3 months ago 17

The Albanese government has offered the Greens a deal sweetener on native forest logging as it tries to secure an agreement that would usher through its totemic environmental laws in the last parliamentary sitting week of the year.

A concession to have native forestry fall under the proposed National Environmental Standards after a three-year transitional period is being considered by the Greens. On Sunday, Environment Minister Murray Watt held a press conference in the Greens’ only lower-house electorate to try to increase pressure for the minor party’s support.

“We’ve deliberately chosen to do this event in the [Brisbane] electorate of Ryan because it is, of course, now the only electorate held by the Greens party in the House of Representatives anywhere across Australia,” Watt said.

“We saw at the last federal election that the Greens party paid a very big political price for being seen by the Australian people to be blocking progress on important things like housing and environmental law reform. So there’s a real opportunity for the Greens this week to demonstrate that they have heard the message from the Australian people that they’re not going to keep blocking progress.”

Ending the parliamentary year with a win on environment reform would be a triumph for the government, which scrapped a previous attempt before the May election, in part because of concern about blowback in Western Australia.

Labor won three of the Greens’ four lower house seats at the May election, including former party leader Adam Bandt’s seat of Melbourne. The party’s representation in the Senate remained stable despite a defection to Labor, granting it the balance of power in the upper house.

The proposed alteration from the government, which would not end native forest logging but would introduce stricter environmental standards, is being reviewed by the Greens. Environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the change was welcome, but the time frame would take too long.

“Another three years of destroying our forests ... I don’t think in any way deals with the urgency of protecting our native forests now,” Hanson-Young told the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.

“We’ll have a good look at this. We’ll kick the tyres on it … we need protections for native forests. I’ve said it publicly, I’ve said it privately, I’ve said it repeatedly. So the fact that they’ve put this on the table today is a good sign that they’re starting to listen.”

Native forest logging is exempt from the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Regional forestry agreements allow the practice in many jurisdictions including Queensland, NSW and Tasmania.

Such agreements would continue under the new laws, but would be forced to meet “a higher level of environmental protection than is currently required”, including considerations of the national environmental significance of sites and the impact on threatened species, a government spokesperson said.

Greens environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young.

The government has committed to reforming the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act by the end of the week, when parliament rises for summer holidays. Labor has remained agnostic over whose support it will seek to get the legislation through the upper house.

“I’m very confident we will get the laws passed this week ... As I’ve said a number of times in the last week, my message to the Coalition and the Greens is that we will be passing these reforms this week, so if they want to be part of it, the door is open,” Watt said on Sunday.

“Every day we delay passing these reforms is another day that we see our environment go backwards and that we see important projects like housing and renewables held up by endless red tape.”

The minister said the forestry industry was “comfortable” with the change.

The move is the second major amendment offered to the Greens, after the government proposed removing the “national interest” exemption that allowed the fast-tracking of coal and gas projects.

Opposition finance spokesperson James Paterson said the Coalition was only willing to strike a bipartisan agreement in the national interest.

“Well, where it stands today, we certainly couldn’t support the proposed legislation,” Paterson told Sky News on Sunday.

“It is deficient in a number of areas, and the business community has been very vocal about that. So the ball is in the government’s court... But if they’re pursuing ideology over Australia’s national interest, then they are welcome to go and do a deal with the Greens, and they will wear the consequences of that.”

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