<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/nov/27/labor-strikes-deal-with-greens-to-pass-long-awaited-overhaul-of-nature-protection-laws>
"A major overhaul of federal environment protection laws has been rushed
through the Senate under a deal between Labor and the Greens, ending a
five-year struggle to deliver on Graeme Samuel’s blueprint to fix the broken
system.
The legislation passed the upper house after 7pm on Thursday, handing Anthony
Albanese a major political win on the final sitting day of the parliamentary
year.
The bill will return to the lower house at 9am on Friday morning to be
rubber-stamped before it becomes law.
The Coalition voted against what Sussan Ley described as a “dirty deal” that
would drive up energy prices, although one of her colleagues, the pro-nature
senator Andrew McLachlan, crossed the floor to back Labor’s bill.
The independent senator, David Pocock, was alarmed the nature laws were “rammed
through with almost no time for scrutiny” by the Senate and said the
government’s deal with the Greens fell short in several areas, although he
ultimately supported them.
The prime minister announced at 8am on Thursday that the government had struck
a deal with the Greens to overhaul the
Environment Protection and Biodiversity
Conservation (EPBC) Act after offering a raft of concessions.
“This is a landmark day for the environment in this country,” Albanese said.
“It is also a good day for business in this country by providing more
certainty, reducing delays and making sure that we get better outcomes and
improved productivity.”
Inspired by Samuel’s 2020 review of the
EPBC Act, the bill promises to better
protect nature through new environmental standards while also speeding up
project assessments.
It will also establish a new environmental protection agency – a Labor election
promise at the past two federal ballots.
After negotiations with the Greens, Albanese said the government had agreed to
subject native forest logging to national environment standards in 18 months’
time, halving the timeframe it proposed in its original offer to the minor
party.
The prime minister also said the government was setting up a $300m fund for the
forestry industry to support jobs and to fund equipment to modernise the
industry.
“We are removing and sunsetting the exemption from the
EPBC Act for high-risk
land-clearing and regional forestry agreements so they comply with the same
rules and standards as other industries,” he said.
“This is about using science and evidence to prove all forestry in Australia is
undertaken at the highest standard. The government is backing forestry and
timber workers through our forest growth fund that will invest in new equipment
and facilities to enable industry modernisation and reprocessing.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
