Every Tuesday of a parliamentary sitting week, shortly after their regular party-room meeting, the Greens call a press conference in Parliament House’s Mural Hall to offer their take on the news of the day.
Not this week.
In the hours between the party-room meeting and Senate question time at 2pm that afternoon, the Greens environment spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, was not fronting the cameras but instead holed-up in the office of her Labor counterpart, Murray Watt, thrashing out a deal to finally re-write the nation’s dated and broken environment protection laws.
Around the same time, the opposition leader, Sussan Ley, was raging on Sky News about the “totally insufficient” offer that Watt had made to secure the Coalition’s support.
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The government says it was genuinely prepared to deal with either party as late as Wednesday night, adamant its overhaul of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act would pass the Senate before parliament finished for the year on Thursday.
But the striking contrast between the two in that brief period on Tuesday – the Greens, conspicuous in their silence, and the Coalition, seemingly resolute in their resistance – suggested one side was always more likely.
Whereas the Greens were consistent with their demands throughout negotiations, the opposition continually shifted the goalposts – lobbing new requests at the government as late as 9.30pm on Wednesday, according to government and Coalition sources.
Greens Senators Sarah Hanson-Young, Larissa Waters and Nick McKim. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
After 72-hours of high-stakes negotiations and tense internal deliberations, in particular among Hanson-Young’s colleagues, Anthony Albanese announced the deal at 8am on Thursday to pass the laws with the Greens.
The agreement included concessions to the Greens to prevent the fast-tracking of coal and gas, removing the exemption for native forest logging within 18 months and tightening a loophole for agricultural land-clearing.
The bill was rushed through the Senate on Thursday night, an abrupt ending to the five-year struggle to act on Graeme Samuel’s blueprint to fix the nature laws.
“The bills were rammed through with almost no time for scrutiny,” the independent senator, David Pocock, said, decrying the package as only a “partial” win for nature.
The timing could not have been more apt.
Almost exactly 12 months ago, Albanese intervened to scuttle a deal that Watt’s predecessor, Tanya Plibersek, had reached with the Greens and Pocock to create a federal environment protection agency in a frantic conclusion to the 2024 parliamentary year.
Prof Graeme Samuel at a public hearing into the Environment Protection Reform Bill at Parliament House on 14 November. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
This time, Albanese was not only prepared to negotiate with the Greens but offer far more concessions, albeit on a bill that included much more than a federal EPA.
What changed? The political climate for one.
After winning the May federal election and no longer anxious to avoid a campaign backlash in the mining state of Western Australia, Albanese appointed Watt – his “Mr Fix it” – with the imprimatur to negotiate whatever deal was required to pass the laws.
A ‘one-time’ offer to fix nature
Senior Labor sources familiar with negotiations say the Greens under their new leader, Larissa Waters, were “very good to deal with”, contrasting it with obstinance they believe characterised the minor party’s approach under Adam Bandt.
Albanese said as much on Thursday morning, praising the “maturity” of the party he has spent much of his political career fighting.
The prime minister injected himself into the negotiations on Wednesday morning, meeting with Waters, Hanson-Young and Watt in his office to iron-out the remaining sticking points.
Albanese was clear the “one-time” offer would be pulled if the Greens didn’t grab it this week.
Opposition leader Sussan Ley says the Coalition had acted in good faith to broker an agreement. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP
The ultimatum put the Greens in a bind. While reluctant to accept a deal that didn’t directly combat the climate crisis, party veterans were conscious that any delays would give industry – particularly cashed-up miners – time to water-down or kill the reforms.
But the Greens also had leverage. Labor’s self-imposed deadline to pass the laws this week meant both it and the Coalition knew they could extract more than they otherwise could.
The Greens convened another party-room around midday on Wednesday to debate their final position.
With the government ruling out a so-called “climate trigger”, securing protection for forests, and quickly, became the Greens’ main priority.
The government initial offer of a three-year timeframe to end the exemption was resisted because, in Hanson-Young’s words, “three years to let the loggers get in there and trash our native forest is three years too long”.
Labor eventually agreed to halve that timeframe to 18 months as well as crackdown on land-clearing, significantly bridging the divide between the two parties.
Ahead of the final deliberations, the Greens sounded out influential figures in the environment movement to seek assurances they would publicly support them if they agreed a deal.
It was time to make a decision.
‘Know when to hold them, when to fold them’
Even as expectations of a Greens deal grew throughout Wednesday, including among industry lobbyists who wanted an agreement between the major parties, Labor continued to pursue the other option.
At 11am on Wednesday, Watt met with his Liberal counterpart, Angie Bell, the shadow resources minister, Susan McDonald and Tasmania senator, Jonno Duniam – the former shadow environment spokesperson who was pushing hard for a deal.
Watt was prepared to accept some of the opposition’s requests, including constraining the powers of the federal EPA, but wouldn’t cede on others, such a requirement for proponents of heavy polluting projects to disclose greenhouse gas emissions as part of their application.
They have manoeuvred themselves into irrelevance on this matterGraeme Samuel
Multiple sources confirmed Bell raised new demands, complicating the chances of a deal between the major parties and frustrating her own colleagues.
Around 4pm and after their party-room meeting, Waters and Hanson-Young made the short walk to the prime minister’s office to finalise the negotiations before Albanese was due at The Lodge for Christmas drinks with press gallery journalists.
As late as Wednesday, the Greens were prepared to oppose the laws if they couldn’t secure a satisfactory deal.
Waters and Hanson-Young left that meeting confident they had.
“[In negotiations] you do have to know when to hold them, when to fold them, and when to play the cards you’ve got to get an outcome,” Hanson-Young said.
As festivities at The Lodge started around 5pm, the official word from the government was that a deal – with either side – was yet to be reached.
That was technically true. Amendments were still being negotiated through the night.
Albanese would need to inform stakeholders, including the Tasmanian premier, Jeremy Rockliff, whose state’s logging industry faces an uncertain future after the deal.
The prime minister had already discussed the prospects of a Greens deal with the Western Australian premier, Roger Cook, who had joined forces with the state’s powerful mining to successfully lobby Albanese to shelve Plibersek’s proposal.
Cook did make another 11th-hour intervention, posting a short video to Instagram appealing to the Coalition to broker a pro-business package with Labor.
The opposition continued negotiations late into Wednesday night, submitting revised demands at 9.30pm.
Senior Coalition figures still believed a deal could be reached as late as Thursday morning.
They were right – it just wasn’t with them.
The fight for climate goes on
“Today, I can announce our government’s landmark environmental law reform will pass the parliament today, heralding a new era for the environment and productivity in Australia,” Albanese said at the Thursday morning press conference alongside Watt and the finance minister, Katy Gallagher.
Waters, Hanson-Young and McKim stood up soon after, heralding the progress for environmental protection while warning the fight to consider climate effects in federal nature laws was far from over.
“This has been a tough negotiation but we’ve managed to deliver some tough blows,” Hanson-Young said.
At her own press conference, Ley decried the “dirty deal” between Labor and the Greens and insisted the Coalition had acted in “good faith” to broker an agreement.
Samuel – who Ley, as Scott Morrison’s environment minister was commissioned for the review that inspired the reforms – had a different view.
“They have manoeuvred themselves into irrelevance on this matter,” the former consumer watchdog said of the Coalition.
“Absolute irrelevance.”