Labor has vowed to establish a federal environment protection agency if it wins the election, just weeks after the 2022 election promise was shelved amid a political and industry backlash in Western Australia.

The public commitment will help placate Labor MPs anxious about the party’s green credentials after the government went ahead with laws to protect Tasmania’s salmon industry from legal challenge over its impact on the endangered Maugean skate.

Labor’s environment caucus committee needed three meetings between Friday and Sunday night to finally reach agreement on the legal intervention.

Labor MPs wanted guarantees a re-elected Albanese government would deliver a promised overhaul of environment protection laws before signing off on the pro-salmon farming legislation.

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Caucus endorsed the legislation on Monday morning, clearing the path for it to be pushed through parliament this week with the Coalition’s support.

In a statement on Monday night, a government spokesperson confirmed a second-term Labor government would establish a federal EPA as part of a wider fix to Australia’s “broken” environment laws.

Labor made the same promise before the 2022 election, part of a response to a review of Australia’s federal environment laws from former ACCC boss Graeme Samuel that was given to the Morrison government.

At the time Plibersek promised a set of “national standards” to underpin the watchdog that all conservation plans and policies would adhere to – shifting responsibility on to a legislated body rather than a politician.

In February of this year, Albanese had insisted Labor was not abandoning environment protection reforms after he pushed laws to establish the nature watchdog off the agenda in February.

Monday night marks the first time Labor has explicitly re-committed to a federal EPA as part of its second-term agenda.

The commitment will help assuage internal unease about Labor’s environment record but likely provoke fresh blowback in WA, where a federal EPA remains deeply unpopular with industry and the WA government.

Government sources have confirmed Labor would consult state governments, environment groups and industry on a new watchdog model, rather than seek to revive the one it failed to pass this term.

The EPA was just one part of Labor’s wider package of nature-positive reforms, which included plans for national environmental standards.

“Our environment laws are broken,” a government spokesperson said.

“They don’t protect the environment adequately, nor do they give businesses timely decisions or protect workers and communities they live in. Only a Labor government will fix this.

“It’s disappointing that the Greens party worked with the Liberals in the Senate to block the establishment of an independent EPA after it passed the House of Representatives in July 2024.”

The government plans to amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act to end a formal reconsideration by the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, into whether an expansion of fish farming in Macquarie Harbour in 2012 was properly approved.

The industry, Tasmanian Labor MPs and state Liberal government have lobbied for the change.

The reconsideration was triggered by a legal request in 2023 from three environmentally focused organisations.

The government stressed the laws were drafted with the specific purpose of protecting Tasmanian salmon workers, as it moves to hose down fears it could be applied to fossil fuel projects.

“We won’t stand by and let workers in (Tasmanian’s) Strahan lose their livelihoods because of a broken law,” the government spokesperson said.

“Under existing law, an industry could be shut down overnight when an environmental assessment commences. That is not acceptable to the government or to the community.

“This is a very specific amendment to address a flaw in the EPBC Act. The existing laws apply to everything else, including all new proposals for coal, gas, and land clearing.”

The Coalition, which was briefed on the laws for the first time on Monday, is expected to back the intervention after months demanding Labor protect the salmon industry.

The shadow environment minister, Jonno Duniam, said Labor can not claim credit for “saving” Tasmanian salmon jobs, given Plibersek agreed to the review of the 2012 decision.

Speaking before the caucus meeting on Monday, Albanese said Labor “makes no apology for supporting jobs”.

“What we know is that the environmental science tells us that the skate is at the same levels that it was back a decade ago. We responded to the science to provide certainty,” he said.