\n<\/p>\n
Fixing the nation\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have had all the reviews we need. All of us have had our say. It is now up to parliament. Let\u2019s just get this done,\u201d Henry will say in Wednesday\u2019s speech, according to extracts supplied to Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In the speech, Henry will cast EPBC reform as critical to boosting productivity \u2013 the economic priority of Labor\u2019s second term.<\/p>\n
\u201cReforming 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,\u201d he will say.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, I can think of other reforms to boost productivity. Some even harder, though none more important. And if we can\u2019t achieve environmental law reform, then we should stop dreaming about more challenging options.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He has also advocated for a carbon price as the least economically damaging method to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In submissions to the inquiry, the Australian Council of Trade Unions said the commission should examine \u201ccarbon pricing policies\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
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 \u201chigh-quality\u201d national nature laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese 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,\u201d Henry will say.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd they must be delivered in a way that not only protects, but restores, nature.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prospects for Labor\u2019s housing target are already under renewed scrutiny after Treasury officials conceded it \u201cwill not be met\u201d in advice to Jim Chalmers accidentally released to the ABC and published this week.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/p>\n
Sign up to Breaking News Australia<\/span><\/p>\n Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The government has recommitted to establishing a federal environmental protection agency but Watt has yet decide the scope of its powers.<\/p>\n The fate of the main recommendation from Graeme Samuel\u2019s review of the EPBC Act \u2013 national environmental standards \u2013 is also unclear as the minister continues consultation with industry and green groups.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n In the speech, Henry will back a streamlined approach before outlining what he considers the key elements for new nature laws.<\/p>\n These include specific changes to preserve matters of national environmental significance, a suite of national standards, an independent EPA and \u201cgenuine cooperation\u201d between the commonwealth, state and territories.<\/p>\n Henry will also call for a rethink of how the principle of ecologically sustainable development (ESD) is applied under federal nature laws.<\/p>\n \u201cIt cannot be applied project by project, in the manner anticipated by the act. Project by project application of ESD is simply nuts,\u201d he will argue.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is time we stopped pretending we have the cognitive discipline to choose a sustainable balance among economic, social and environmental goals, project by project.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fixing the nation\u2019s 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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10927,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[2059,2029,2380,872,4100,4097,1562,788,4098,124,4099],"class_list":{"0":"post-10926","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-australian","9":"tag-australias","10":"tag-broken","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-extreasury","13":"tag-fixing","14":"tag-hold","15":"tag-key","16":"tag-laws","17":"tag-politics","18":"tag-productivity"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}