Alliance of business groups intervenes amid debate over the bill

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Negotiations on updating Australia’s environmental laws continue, with less than two weeks left of the federal parliamentary year. The government doesn't have the numbers to get the legislation through the senate It needs either the coalition or greens senators to back it. An alliance of business groups is attempting to break the political impasse urging both the government and opposition to work out a deal

Transcript

00:00Dozens of business groups have united in a call to ask Labor and the Coalition to work

00:07together to make changes to the government's proposed environment reforms.

00:11Now, Australia's environment laws are widely considered broken because on one hand they're

00:18considered too complex to navigate for businesses, meaning that projects are being delayed for

00:23months and sometimes even years as companies await important approvals decisions.

00:29And on the other, they're not seen to be protecting the environment properly, hurting Australia's

00:33native wildlife and also not adequately considering the impacts of climate change.

00:39And so the federal government has been on a mission to overhaul our environment laws so

00:43that they work better for everybody.

00:45But it does need to strike a deal with either the Coalition or the Greens to get these laws

00:51through the Senate.

00:52And it's shaping up to be a challenge.

00:54And now an alliance of 26 business groups has written a letter to Environment Minister

01:00Murray Watt and his Coalition counterpart, Angie Bell, outlining seven proposed changes that

01:06they would like to see to these reforms.

01:09Now, this group is made up of the Business Council of Australia, the Minerals Council, the National

01:14Farmers Federation and Master Builders.

01:17And they are calling for a couple of things.

01:19I'll just outline a few.

01:20So they say that they want clarification around the powers of a new proposed environment protection

01:25agency.

01:26They want the EPA's stop work orders opened to review and appeal.

01:31And they want to ensure that the agency is more focused on compliance and enforcement rather

01:36than primary decision making on project approvals.

01:40The businesses also want the government to ensure that a project's estimated carbon emissions

01:44are not considered as part of the project assessment process.

01:47The chief executive of the Business Council of Australia, Bran Black, spoke to the ABC earlier,

01:53where he said that businesses are really focused on the government developing a plan that allows

01:58certainty and streamlined approvals processes.

02:00Take a listen.

02:02The key change that business has always been pushing for is streamlined approvals.

02:07That doesn't mean cutting quarters.

02:09And I really do stress that point.

02:10It means making sure that we've got the right processes, but we progress them with reasonable

02:16speed such that Australia doesn't lag.

02:18We know, for instance, that in the calendar years 2023 and 2024, there were 76 renewable

02:25projects that were submitted for approval through the EPBC process.

02:29Not a single one has been approved.

02:32Sam, what are some of the political reaction to these proposed changes?

02:35Well, Gemma, the Greens are obviously not supportive of these proposed changes, given that they

02:40don't think that the current legislation before Parliament actually goes far enough to protect

02:44the environment as it currently stands.

02:48The Greens are frustrated that the proposed laws don't require decision makers to consider

02:52climate impacts when assessing projects.

02:54And they also don't approve of an exemption around native logging in the Act.

02:59Greens Senator Sarah Hansen-Young says that the government needs to pick a side when deciding

03:04who to negotiate with on these environment laws.

03:07And now, with the coalition formally abandoning a net zero target by 2050, as well as walking

03:12back some of Australia's other climate commitments, the Greens are really trying to use that

03:16as leverage to pressure the government to work with them on negotiating around these

03:20environment laws, rather than the coalition, who they say can't be trusted when it comes

03:24to the environment.

03:25But given that the government does want to push these laws through Parliament before the

03:29end of the year, the clock is ticking for them to strike a deal with either the

03:33coalition and some business groups or the Greens before the final sitting week next week.

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