“Utterly broken:” Watt promises to speed up overhaul of environment laws

An overhaul of Australia’s environmental laws has been accelerated because the “utterly broken” act stands in the way of more housing, renewable energy and stronger environmental protections.

With widely acknowledged shortcomings for both nature protection and business certainty, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act was a key talking point at last week’s federal economic summit.

Environment Minister Murray Watt has promised to shave at least six months off the reform timeline in response and introduce draft legislation by the end of 2025 rather than mid-2026.

“We will not meet our national priorities like delivering more homes, delivering renewable energy and, of course, protecting our environment, unless if we overhaul these laws,” he told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday.

“They are utterly broken at the moment.”

The federal government has long been committed to reform but Labor failed to complete the task in its first three-year term.

Senator Watt’s predecessor, Tanya Plibersek, almost secured a deal with the crossbench for a federal environmental protection agency – part of the broader reforms – though it ultimately fell over after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese scuppered the agreement following talks with WA Premier Roger Cook.

Senator Watt has already travelled to Perth three times to meet with Mr Cook and is due to come face-to-face again on Tuesday.

But the minister said it was “very clear” Mr Cook was supportive of the reforms and confirmed the fast-tracked reforms would include setting up a federal Environmental Protection Agency, although the exact model will be devised following further consultation.

The government will still need the support of the Greens or the coalition to pass the laws and has yet to strike a deal.

“We hope that the minister will seriously tackle this,” Greens leader Larissa Waters told ABC Radio.

“Unless you’ve got climate considered by our nature laws, unless you’ve got an end to native forest logging and unless you can actually protect critical habitat then your environmental laws aren’t really working, are they?”

While environment groups like Greenpeace Australia Pacific have welcomed the government’s intention to prioritise reforms, its head of nature program Glenn Walker warned they could not be a “big rubber stamp for the big end of town”.

“They need to genuinely protect and restore nature in Australia,” he said.

But Senator Watt assured the laws would be a “package deal”.

“You don’t get quicker approvals without stronger environmental standards and you don’t get stronger environmental standards without quicker approvals,” he said.

“They have to be done together … that’s how we’ll get environmental laws that are better for our environment and better for business.”

New environmental standards, a core ask of the now five-year-old Samuel review that declared current legislation ineffective and outdated, will still go ahead.

The laws are designed to kick in when mining proposals, building plans and other development threatens “matters of national environmental significance”.

Its role in the stymied progress of the clean energy transition has been criticised and is understood to be contributing to lengthy project delays.

In May, conservation groups and the clean energy industry signed a joint letter urging the federal government to hurry its reforms to pave the way for “faster yeses and faster nos.”

Source: AAP