Fixing the nation’s broken environment protection laws is the most important reform the Albanese government can pursue to boost productivity, and holds the key to meeting climate and housing targets, according to former treasury secretary Ken Henry.
Henry, now the chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation, will use a speech to the National Press Club as a rallying cry to federal parliament to finally agree on a rewrite of the quarter-century old Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.
“We have had all the reviews we need. All of us have had our say. It is now up to parliament. Let’s just get this done,” Henry will say in Wednesday’s speech, according to extracts supplied to Guardian Australia.
The environment minister, Murray Watt, is designing a new package of federal nature laws after Anthony Albanese shelved the earlier version ahead of the election amid lobbying from miners and the Western Australian government.
In the speech, Henry will cast EPBC reform as critical to boosting productivity – the economic priority of Labor’s second term.
“Reforming our broken environmental laws is an obvious lever to enhance resilience and lift moribund productivity growth. And reforms provide an opportunity to dramatically cut the cost to government,” he will say.
“Of course, I can think of other reforms to boost productivity. Some even harder, though none more important. And if we can’t achieve environmental law reform, then we should stop dreaming about more challenging options.”
Henry is best known as the author of the 2010 tax review for the Rudd government, which inspired the short-lived mining super profits tax.
He has also advocated for a carbon price as the least economically damaging method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The idea of a carbon price has again been put on the agenda as the Productivity Commission examines options to lower the cost of hitting climate targets.
In submissions to the inquiry, the Australian Council of Trade Unions said the commission should examine “carbon pricing policies” for different parts of the economy, and the Australian Energy Council called for a carbon price to be modelled to help inform emission reduction policies.
With most large-scale infrastructure developments requiring approval under the EPBC Act, from renewable energy projects to housing estates, Henry will argue the government will fail to reach its targets of net zero by 2050 and building 1.2m homes by 2030 without “high-quality” national nature laws.
“These projects, be they windfarms, solar farms, transmission lines, new housing developments, land-based carbon sequestration projects, new and enhanced transport corridors or critical minerals extraction and processing plants, must be delivered quickly and efficiently,” Henry will say.
“And they must be delivered in a way that not only protects, but restores, nature.”
The prospects for Labor’s housing target are already under renewed scrutiny after Treasury officials conceded it “will not be met” in advice to Jim Chalmers accidentally released to the ABC and published this week.
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The government has recommitted to establishing a federal environmental protection agency but Watt has yet decide the scope of its powers.
The fate of the main recommendation from Graeme Samuel’s review of the EPBC Act – national environmental standards – is also unclear as the minister continues consultation with industry and green groups.
However, Watt has signalled a desire to pursue the reforms in one package, rather than in multiple tranches as attempted by his predecessor, Tanya Plibersek.
In the speech, Henry will back a streamlined approach before outlining what he considers the key elements for new nature laws.
These include specific changes to preserve matters of national environmental significance, a suite of national standards, an independent EPA and “genuine cooperation” between the commonwealth, state and territories.
Henry will also call for a rethink of how the principle of ecologically sustainable development (ESD) is applied under federal nature laws.
“It cannot be applied project by project, in the manner anticipated by the act. Project by project application of ESD is simply nuts,” he will argue.
“It is time we stopped pretending we have the cognitive discipline to choose a sustainable balance among economic, social and environmental goals, project by project.”
