{"id":243540,"date":"2025-10-27T06:15:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T06:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243540\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T06:15:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T06:15:07","slug":"coalition-and-greens-scolded-for-opposing-new-nature-laws-by-author-of-key-environment-report-australian-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/243540\/","title":{"rendered":"Coalition and Greens scolded for opposing new nature laws by author of key environment report | Australian politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graeme Samuel has urged the Coalition<\/a> and Greens to set aside grievances with the Albanese government\u2019s new nature laws and support them, avoiding further delays in fixing a system that his landmark review found was broken.<\/p>\n

The author of the 2021 review<\/a> of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act issued a stern message to both sides as Labor braces for a political fight to deliver the long-awaited reforms.<\/p>\n

Samuel reserved his strongest words for the Coalition, whose now leader Sussan Ley<\/a> commissioned the review when she was environment minister in the Morrison government.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on at the moment,\u201d the former competition watchdog told Guardian Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt frustrates me and it makes me a bit angry. What we are talking about here is the future of nature for our children, our grandchildren and great grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n

After introducing the laws to parliament later this week, the environment minister, Murray Watt, will face an uphill battle to get it through the Senate after the Coalition and the Greens ruled out supporting it in its current form.<\/p>\n

The opposition\u2019s push to split the bill into two parts, prioritising measures to fast-track projects while delaying environmental protections, was immediately rejected by Watt as well as the Business Council of Australia (BCA) on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe favour having everything on the table at the same time, and we think that that approach assures us the best basis for getting the right balanced outcome that ultimately secures benefits to the environment and for business,\u201d said the BCA\u2019s chief executive, Bran Black, whose lobby group represents Woodside, BHP and Rio Tinto.<\/p>\n

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Samuel said he was \u201cpuzzled\u201d at the opposition\u2019s proposal, given the review he originally prepared for Ley recommended starting with the development of national environmental standards as the \u201cfoundation stone\u201d.<\/p>\n

He noted the Coalition also opposed the previous iteration of Labor\u2019s EPBC reform when it was split into stages.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t figure it out,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what sort of games people are playing up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuel also had a message for the Greens, which are refusing to back Labor\u2019s proposal without specific measures to address climate change and native forest logging.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say to the Greens that here is an opportunity to have a major reform and it takes you a long way forward of the current position,\u201d he said. \u201cI hate to say it but it\u2019s that well worn phrase of \u2018don\u2019t let perfect be the enemy of good\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, dismissed Samuel\u2019s message after Guardian Australia invited her to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry Mr. Samuels isn\u2019t happy that people aren\u2019t picking up his report and turning it into gospel, but the Greens will always fight for nature and for an end to forest logging,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Samuel was in parliament house on Monday in his capacity as chair of an airline industry group, but said MPs had reached out to discuss EPBC reforms.<\/p>\n

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The government was on Monday circulating the remaining pieces of the legislation to stakeholders ahead of the bill\u2019s introduction later this week.<\/p>\n

The remaining parts include the powers of the proposed environment protection agency \u2013 details of which were published on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The shadow environment minister, Angie Bell, was expected to be briefed early on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Speaking earlier on ABC RN Breakfast, Bell said \u201cat this point in time, this bill is not workable.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the business council was critical of Ley\u2019s attempt to split the bill, Black said industry had several concerns with the legislation, including a new definition for \u201cunacceptable impact\u201d on the environment, the EPA\u2019s powers to issue \u201cstop-work\u201d orders to halt projects and new emissions reporting requirements.<\/p>\n

Black confirmed industry wanted the Coalition to strike a deal with Labor to pass the laws, sidelining the Greens.<\/p>\n

Watt has so far only ruled out a \u201cclimate trigger\u201d, leaving the door open to changes to address industry\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re about is passing a bill that is good for the environment and good for business, and it\u2019s up to the Coalition and the Greens to decide are they prepared to do that or are they going to go into their corners and fight for a bill that only delivers to the environment or only delivers to business?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Graeme Samuel has urged the Coalition and Greens to set aside grievances with the Albanese government\u2019s new nature…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-243540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}