No Christmas cheer from Greens for environment overhaul
Grace Crivellaro |
A former Greens leader has labelled Labor’s sweeping environmental reforms a disgrace and urged an entire rewrite of the bill.
Veteran conservationist Bob Brown lashed the long-awaited rewrite of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act before a parliamentary committee examining the bill on Thursday.
“It’s up to the government to take this legislation back and put it in the bin where it belongs,” he said.
Labor hopes the overhaul of environmental laws will pass through the Senate before Christmas, despite the committee not due to hand down its final report on the changes until March.
There are just four sitting days left for the parliamentary year before the summer break.
The reforms aim to accelerate project approvals including housing, energy and critical minerals projects.
Mr Brown urged that the bill not be “shoved through” as it will cause “environmental carnage” in its current state.
“Under this Labor government, when you bring in legislation to protect the environment … you leave ‘get out’ clauses for the worst abusers,” he said.
Asked what specific provisions he took concern with, Mr Brown said “the whole legislation is a red line, it’s a disaster”.
The laws cannot pass without either the support of the Greens or coalition.
Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black also urged the government not to rush the reforms, saying clarification is needed on what constitutes “undue harm” and other elements such as ministerial veto powers.
“Because the provisions are so vague, we can’t say definitively what projects they would capture and what projects they wouldn’t capture,” Mr Black told the hearing.
Support for the reforms from the council and 25 other industry groups is also contingent on at least one state or territory being accredited for approvals to boost productivity.
“In Canada, the government has just announced their equivalent of a state approval is sufficient for federal purposes,” Mr Black said.
“It’s that type of competitiveness we’re up against, and for Australia to be competitive, we need to be making sure that our processes are efficient as possible.”
Environment Minister Murray Watt previously flagged he is open to negotiating elements of the legislation with the party that gives him most of what he has already put forward.
In a speech on Thursday, he was confident the bill will pass imminently.
“With our national environmental law reforms ready to pass the Senate next week, we really are on the precipice of something special,” Senator Watt told the Queensland Press Club.
“Something that our environment, business and our community desperately need to be done. Not in another five years – now.”
Recommendations made by the Business Council closely align with concerns held by the coalition, with Mr Black telling the hearing “bipartisan support” is the “best thing that can happen” for major reforms to ensure their longevity.
Mr Brown criticised the Business Council as a “bastion of greed and self-interest” that has no interest in the environment.
AAP
