What is the reaction to the bill?
Minerals Council of Australia Tania Constable said the deal with the Greens was an “inferior and disappointing outcome” compared to what was offered to the Coalition.
However, the MCA and the Business Council of Australia acknowledged the government delivered on key asks around project assessments.
The renewables lobby, the Clean Energy Council, hailed the reform as a win. Only one of the 89 renewable energy projects needing federal environmental assessment in Australia’s three largest eastern states has received the final go-ahead from regulators since 2023, analysis by law firm Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer has found.
The influential Labor Environment Action Network said the reform was a “huge win” for the environment.
Environment groups welcomed the reform but criticised the lack of new measures to reduce greenhouse emissions.
The forestry lobby group said the reform “will strangle the native forest industry in green tape”.
What are the politics of the deal?
Albanese surprised many observers recently as it became apparent the government was actively pursuing a deal with the Greens.
The Greens have been Albanese’s key rival for his entire political career in his inner-Sydney seat, and as prime minister, Albanese has been loath to give them a win.
This fact exploded into public view last November. Former environment minister Tanya Plibersek had nearly cut a deal with the Greens to create an EPA when Albanese made a last-minute intervention to scupper it.
Plibersek had agreed to terms with Greens counterpart Sarah Hanson-Young, but Albanese, siding with WA Labor premier Roger Cook, ruled out any concessions in a move that disappointed Labor’s large base of environmentally minded grassroots members.
What’s included in the environment reformsNew environment watchdog agency with hefty fines for illegal works.First-ever national standards to safeguard nature, including an unacceptable impacts rule to prevent major environmental damage.Federal laws to apply to native forest logging by mid-2027, a key ask of the Greens.Fast-track approvals for significant projects, like housing and renewable energy.Streamlined assessment to cut federal-state duplication.Watchdog’s “stop work” powers limited to 14 days.Crackdown on illegal land clearing, a leading cause of species extinction.
The Greens have been viewed as primarily a party of protest, and most recently angered the government over delaying Labor’s election commitment to establish a $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund.
Greens leader Larissa Waters said her party was “determined to get shit done” and hailed new protections for nature as she acknowledged her party compromised with the government over fast-tracking projects.
Environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young led Greens negotiations, securing a commitment from Labor to require the environment watchdog to crackdown on land clearing and for the government to drop its plan to extend fast-tracked approvals to coal and gas projects.
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The most significant gain the Greens secured was a commitment to scrap Regional Forestry Agreements, which effectively means native timber logging will be subject to federal law by the end of 2027.
Opposition leader Sussan Ley disappointed major industry groups by failing to cut a deal with the government, and exposing them to greater regulations under the Greens deal.
However, Ley said Watt had failed to offer a deal that was acceptable for business – a claim that Watt rejected as he described the Coalition as a “shambles” that could not form a unified position.
“You can’t strike a deal with someone who doesn’t know what they want,” Watt said.
What’s in it for nature?
Since colonisation, about 100 of Australia’s unique flora and fauna species have been wiped out, with more unrecorded and unknown losses of invertebrates to boot. The rate of loss, as significant as anywhere on Earth, has not slowed over the past 200 years.
Watt’s reforms draw on the 2020 Samuel Review, which recommended sweeping changes to protect nature from accelerating losses due to ecosystem collapse and global warming.
A centrepiece of the reform is the Environmental Protection Agency, in operation by July 2026, which it said would bolster nature protections with an independent eye on development decisions and regulation enforcement.
It also establishes powers for the government to create the first set of national standards on the environment, with legally enforceable rules to protect endangered wildlife and ensure ecologically sustainable development. This will include strong guidelines like an “unacceptable impacts” test to rule out significant harm from major projects, but the rules are yet to be written.
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It delivers Albanese’s overdue election commitment for a new national watchdog agency as well as “streamlined assessments” to speed up major projects in the housing and renewable energy sectors. This is a major change, where the federal government will accredit states to assess projects under federal law to remove duplication, hasten decision-making and encourage investment.
Also includes a “net gain” provision on environmental offsets, which are intended to counterbalance unavoidable impacts, such as a tourism resort that knocks down koala habitat in one area but restores a bigger and better home for the marsupials elsewhere.
These changes are only viewed as material gains in the law, but also greater federal nature protection powers, which conservationists argue is a significant gain given state government’s poor record on environmental protection.