Murray Watt nears deal with Coalition to finally overhaul environment laws

Labor Environment Minister Murray Watt will sit down with his Liberal counterpart Angie Bell today, with quiet optimism in both parties that a deal might soon be struck to finally rewrite Australia’s “broken” and outdated environment laws.

But negotiations with the Coalition, which is emerging as the preferred partner to pass the reforms, will likely run right up to when legislation is introduced to parliament in the final sitting fortnight of this year.

Senator Watt maintains that he would like to win broad support for laws that would speed up housing and energy project developments, establish “go” and “no-go” zones for construction and create a federal environment watchdog

However the minister has indicated the government is unlikely to side with the Greens to see the laws passed while the party demands the inclusion of a “climate trigger” that could be used to block coal and gas projects.

While there are still several issues to be ironed out — key among them the exact functions of the Environment Protection Agency — the ABC has been told both sides feel the negotiations are heading in the right direction.

The Coalition wants to ensure the final say on projects rests with the minister, not the EPA, which would be tasked with compliance matters, and that duplication with the states would be minimised as much as possible. 

In a statement, Ms Bell said after three years of “inaction” on environmental reform, Australia could not wait any longer for the broken laws to be fixed.

“The Coalition welcomes the opportunity to work with the government in a bipartisan way on this legislation,” Ms Bell said.

“We will engage in robust discussion because we understand the importance of getting the balance right … it is simply too important to get wrong.”

Stalled laws could finally be settled

Environment reforms have sat on the to-do list for more than five years, after a landmark review by Graeme Samuel in 2020 concluded they were broken and no longer serving the interests of business or protecting the environment.

The then-Coalition government failed to pass planned reforms, and an attempt by the Albanese government last term also failed.

Since then, Senator Watt has been appointed to the portfolio, resetting the debate and quietly conducting more than 70 meetings with stakeholders since taking up the role in May.

And after winning over the conditional support of big business on creating an Environment Protection Agency, one of the key stumbling blocks last term, Senator Watt brought forward the timeline to see the overdue reforms finally passed, saying he would introduce legislation in November.

On Tuesday, Senator Watt also gave his strongest indication yet that the government was not likely to work with the Greens on another key stumbling block, which was to have a “climate trigger” written into the laws that could be used to block projects that would significantly worsen CO2 emissions.

Asked about a climate trigger during Senate estimates by Liberal senator Jonno Duniam, Senator Watt said it was “unlikely” the government would include a trigger in the law.

“I would say it is unlikely. Again, we haven’t reached a final position on that,” the minister said.

“We are leaning towards following Graeme Samuel’s recommendation, which is that proponents should disclose the scope one and two emissions of their proposed project, and they should present an abatement plan … but that we’re not leaning towards going beyond that.

“I cannot see the government agreeing to a climate trigger,” he later added.

Greens leader Larissa Waters told ABC Afternoon Briefing on Wednesday the party remained available to negotiate on EPBC reforms, saying Senator Watt’s comments in estimates were “just positioning”.

“I take Murray’s statement with a grain of salt,” Senator Water said.

“I think the minister is just trying to keep his options open. They may well want to do a deal with the Liberals to have really bad environmental laws that don’t protect nature and just give the go-ahead to coal and gas. That’s open to them.

“What they should do is come and talk to the Greens.”

The government has maintained that similar provisions already exist in other legislation, and its reforms would include requirements for projects to report their projected direct emissions and detail plans to reduce them over time.

How that is reported, if at all, is one detail stakeholders are still seeking clarity on, as well as the process to create plans that could allow construction without an assessment, or effectively ban any development in an area, which the government has dubbed “go” and “no go” zones.