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Opposition Leader Sussan Ley is preparing to reject the prospect of a deal with the government on its landmark plans to revamp the nation’s nature laws and speed up approvals for housing and green energy projects.
The long-delayed bill was killed off last term after blowback from miners and the pro-fossil fuel Western Australian government prompted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to put negotiations with the Greens on ice. Labor has resurrected the push this term after it emerged from Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ economic roundtable as one of the few reforms with wide-scale support.
Coalition leader Sussan Ley.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
Leaked details of the updated legislation emerged yesterday, sparking anxiety from environmentalists who fear it will accelerate habitat destruction and business groups who claim it will hand the government broad powers to veto investment.
The Opposition said then it would wait to assess the bill before making a decision. But Coalition sources said Ley was now concerned that the legislation would give broad power to the environment minister to block projects, allow developments to be blocked for climate reasons and impose big fines on industry.
The government privately batted away business groups’ concerns about a proposal to empower a minister to block a proposed mines, factories or processing facilities if they posed an “unacceptable” risk to the environment. The government said the plan was largely in keeping with the existing legislation.
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Environment Minister Murray Watt said on Wednesday another concern of business groups, the need for proponents of big-emitting projects to display how they would reduce emissions, was not the same as a contentious Greens-backed “climate trigger”.
Reacting to the industry-led blowback, senior Coalition MPs who were previously contemplating a deal with Labor over the laws have now become reluctant and will not back the bill in its current form, party sources unauthorised to speak publicly said.
That would leave Labor with the option of working with the Greens, who are critical of the proposal for different reasons.
Further deadlock over the bill would be a blow for Labor given the environmental reform was a topline item from Chalmers’ roundtable. Business groups and economists say the laws are paramount to productivity because the current environment approvals process is blocking the building of crucial projects.
More to come.
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