Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has taken personal charge of negotiations in a desperate attempt to salvage Labor's flagship environmental legislation, with a deal yet to be struck on the eve of parliament's final sitting day for the year.
Parliamentary standoff threatens environmental reforms
The government's ambitious plan to rewrite Australia's nature laws faces potential collapse for the second time in twelve months unless a breakthrough can be achieved on Thursday. Political, industry and environmental movement sources anticipate the Greens will eventually accept a last-minute compromise after Labor presented new concessions aimed at securing the minor party's crucial support.
Throughout Wednesday, the government remained locked in tense discussions with both the Greens and the Coalition as it races against time to meet its self-imposed deadline of overhauling the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act before parliament breaks for summer.
Prime Minister takes direct role in negotiations
In a significant development indicating the critical stage of negotiations, Mr Albanese has become directly involved in the talks, holding discussions with Greens counterpart Larissa Waters. The Prime Minister's active participation in such legislative negotiations typically signals that discussions have reached their most crucial phase.
Government sources confirmed that no agreement had been reached by Wednesday evening, leaving the reforms hanging in the balance. While the Prime Minister hadn't conducted leader-to-leader talks with Opposition's Sussan Ley by Wednesday night, Environment Minister Murray Watt did speak again with his Liberal counterpart, Angie Bell.
This continued engagement with the Coalition demonstrates the government remains open to a potential deal with the opposition, although this option appeared less likely after Ley dismissed Labor's initial offer as "totally insufficient".
Concessions and complications in environmental legislation
Guardian Australia understands the opposition requested additional business-friendly changes on Wednesday, further complicating the prospects of an eleventh-hour agreement between the major parties.
After an initial package of concessions, including measures designed to prevent the fast-tracking of coal and gas projects, failed to persuade the Greens, the government returned with a revised offer to the minor party on Wednesday. The Greens party room convened to consider their position on the updated proposal, though neither party would disclose specific details of the new terms.
The proposed legislation, inspired by Graeme Samuel's 2020 review of the EPBC Act, aims to better protect nature through new environmental standards while simultaneously speeding up project assessments. It also includes the establishment of a new environmental protection agency - a key Labor election promise from the past two federal ballots.
The bill has attracted intense criticism from multiple fronts. Environmental campaigners warn it won't adequately address Australia's extinction crisis, while industry representatives fear certain provisions, particularly a proposed new "unacceptable impact" measure, could effectively block development projects.
If Labor fails to secure a deal on Thursday, it would represent the second time in twelve months that planned reforms to the EPBC Act have been postponed. In the previous parliamentary term, then-environment minister Tanya Plibersek proposed a staged approach to reforms and introduced legislation to establish an environment protection agency.
Just as Plibersek appeared close to securing an agreement with the Greens and independent senator David Pocock, the prime minister vetoed the bill following pressure from the Western Australian government and mining sector. Mr Albanese subsequently decided against resurrecting the legislation ahead of the May federal election, delaying the entire reform process until after his government's return to power.
In an email to supporters on Wednesday, the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN) - which has campaigned for years to fix the EPBC Act - expressed its preference for the government to partner with the Greens. "The Greens offer includes most of LEAN's key asks, and we are hopeful this will be the path forward," the email stated. "The Coalition offer, while clearly inferior, does not catastrophically weaken the Labor bills. We remain positive, though understandably nervous."
