The former Treasury secretary Ken Henry says “a conga line of developers” would lobby the environment minister for special carve outs unless the Albanese government clarifies the types of projects that could be granted exemptions under its new nature laws.
While welcoming the overall package of laws introduced to parliament on Thursday, Henry said the vague drafting of the “national interest” exemption and the failure to close loopholes for native forest logging and land clearing were problems that needed to be fixed.
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Labor’s grassroots environment action group also want the exemption “tightened”, and the other loopholes shut, but is desperate for the laws to pass after years of internal campaigning.
Five years to the day since Graeme Samuel presented his scathing review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act to then Coalition government minister Sussan Ley, Labor on Thursday introduced its promised fix to parliament.
“Reforming these laws is vital to protect our precious natural environment, on which life depends, as do jobs in tourism, agriculture, resources and other industries,” the environment minister, Murray Watt, said in a speech to the National Press Club.
“But this act is also incredibly important to giving business certainty and achieving our national priorities.”
Among the bill’s provisions is a new power that would allow the environment minister to approve a project in breach of national environmental standards if it was deemed in the “national interest”.
The legislation cites projects relating to defence, security and national emergencies as the types of applications that might attract the exemption.
But it does not limit the exemption to those areas, creating a level of discretion that green groups fear could be used to approve fossil-fuel projects at odds with nature laws.
Labor MP, Ed Husic also warned the power could be misused by a future Coalition minister.
Henry, who as chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation has been a high-profile advocate for EPBC reform, said the exemption needed to be clarified.
“Unless there is sufficient clarity, the minister is going to have a conga line of project developers through the halls of parliament house, trying to get him to argue that their project is in the national interest,” he told Guardian Australia.
“Every project developer is absolutely convinced that their project is in the national interest. And if that’s all it takes, then the laws are worthless.
“Obviously more than that’s going to be required [to get an exemption] but exactly what’s going to be required – that’s the big question.”
The Labor Environment Action Network (Lean) co-convener Louise Crawford also wanted the exemption “tightened” to avoid “unintended consequences”.
Questioned at the press club about the provision, Watt again cited defence and national security as the type of projects that the “rarely used” power could apply to.
When asked why the legislation didn’t explicitly prohibit the exemption from being used for fossil projects, Watt left the door open to changes.
“If others want to raise those kind of things over the course of the debate, we’ll listen to them as we will to every other proposal,” he said.
While praising the bill as a “big step” forward for nature and business, Henry was disappointed the carve out for native forest logging and the so-called “continuous use exemption” that allows agricultural land clearing to bypass federal assessment were not removed.
Watt has promised native forest logging would be captured under proposed new environment standards but has no plans to touch the land-clearing exemptions.
Environment groups including the Australian Conservation Foundation, Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund and Wilderness Society all criticised the exemptions as they warned the bill contained too many loopholes to properly protect nature.
The Wilderness Society’s Sam Szoke-Burke said the bill was “riddled with loopholes that would enable rampant deforestation and species extinctions to continue at pace”.
Crawford said LEAN would continue to its long-running campaign for the EPBC Act to be stripped of all exemptions.
But she said members were determined for the legislation to pass after several failed attempts, including in the Albanese government’s first term, to fix the John Howard-era nature laws.
“We believe there’s enough good in this bill, it is time to get on with it,” she said.
The Coalition and the Greens, which are both opposed to the bill in its current form, joined forces in the Senate on Thursday to refer the bill to a five-month inquiry.
Labor could still pass the laws this year if it struck a deal with either side.
The Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, said she was open to negotiating with Labor but stressed the current bill “leaves nature for dead” and would “make things worse for nature and the climate”.
“It will take environment protections backwards while fast-tracking approvals for business,” she said.
