On Thursday we were hoping to be celebrating the Australian parliament passing legislation to create a federal Environmental Protection Agency, an expert watchdog to oversee our country’s natural bounty. This was going to be a major moment for which my organisation, the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN) and many others had worked for years. Promised on the eve of the 2022 election, it was the centre-piece of the Labor’s commitment to the environment. But late on Tuesday afternoon the legislation was moth-balled.
It is a sad and sorry tale.
Failure has many authors and human mistakes were made along the way, but it is pretty clear that the proposal being discussed with the crossbench this week would have resulted in cabinet-endorsed, existing Labor policy. The Greens had withdrawn their difficult demands, working instead to advance the nature positive policy plan presented by the government in December 2022. It is hard to imagine why it decided to nix their own stated priorities, or why longstanding policy was subject to a fatal attack by Western Australia-based vested interests.
Environmental law is arcane and is hard to get people excited about. As the natural world continues to decline, those of us who have long fought for the protection of forests, oceans and animals turned our attention to better rules to underpin the trade-offs our society must make between the economy and the environment.
LEAN is the largest group of members inside the ALP. In 2017 we took on the task of embedding environmental law reform and the creation of an EPA into Labor policy. Volunteers spoke to thousands of Labor members, and 500 local branches backed the call for environmental law reform and an EPA. It has been in the National Policy Platform since 2018, when we took it to the Conference floor and won its place as a Labor policy priority. I can confidently say there is no policy on the government’s books that has had more sustained and deep engagement and endorsement by the party membership.
Fast forward to November 2024, the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, had put forward bills to create the EPA and its sister organisation, Environment Information Australia – a data collection agency to inform better decision making. These were only modest beginnings. Bigger reform was promised, including the complete rewriting of the environment laws, as recommended by the business leader, Graeme Samuel to the previous Morrison government.
Despite having commissioned the Samuel review and promising to implement its wide-ranging recommendations, the Coalition refused to negotiate in good faith. The Greens put up demands on climate and forestry that were fanciful. But over time, the negotiations between Plibersek and the crossbench progressed and by early this week, an agreement was tantalisingly close.
The key addition to the proposed bills appears to have been the establishment of National Environment Standards. The Samuel review’s key innovation was the creation of these standards.
The current laws are all process, no outcomes. They are universally hated by business and environment interests. The lack of decision criteria leads to slow approval processes and shifting expectations that undermine development.
For the environment, the lack of rules is central to the laws’ failure to stem the rate of extinctions. Standards – negotiated with all stakeholders – would provide decision making rules, providing the certainty that both business and the environment need.
When considering the bills, Labor’s own Senate committee proposed adding standards to this tranche of legislation. This was recognition that both the environment and business could no longer wait on improving how the act works.
It is also why major economic actors, including Australian Industry Group, the country’s largest renewable energy developers and Rio Tinto all lobbied for passing these bills with the inclusion of standards. Clean energy companies identify the current environment laws as the biggest risk to meeting the government’s 82% renewable energy target.
A few short days ago we were sitting on the edge of big important things for our struggling environment, as well as better and faster results for the economy. This is just the stuff we true believers back Labor to provide. Sadly vested interests from the west appear to have undermined Labor’s confidence and derailed progress.
A group of dedicated Labor members woke up this morning feeling wobbly, their faith somewhat shaken.
