Media Release – Tanya Plibersek’s environmental agenda in tatters as Global Nature Positive Summit flops

11 October 2024

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s Nature Positive agenda is in tatters with the government failing to bring on their legislation for debate during a Parliamentary sitting week where it hosted mid-level international bureaucrats at its Nature Positive Summit talkfest. With only two Senate sittings to go this year with a glut of legislation before it, and an impending Federal election to boot, there are genuine doubts that Labor will make any progress in the environment portfolio this term.

This is despite assertions from the Prime Minister at the start of the government’s term that there would be a renewed focus on the environment portfolio and amid the promises at Tanya Plibersek’s Nature Positive Plan back in December 2022 that the EPBC Act would be updated by the end of 2023 – a pledge that has embarrassingly been delayed indefinitely.

The Albanese Labor Government has instead pursued a consolation prize in the form of a needless bureaucracy – a Federal EPA. But even these minor ambitions have been significantly set back from its outspoken rhetoric. On September 10 this year, Tanya Plibersek declared that the government was in its “final stages of negotiations” with either the Coalition or the crossbench to pass its current set of Bills. With three sitting weeks being fulfilled since that statement, their progress and enthusiasm to negotiate with the Coalition on a way forward is dead in the water.

Shadow Environment Minister Jonno Duniam is disappointed in Labor failing to meet its own standards: “We want to see enduring reforms within this portfolio, especially to the EPBC Act, and have been more than willing to speak with the government this whole term about what acceptable legislation would look like.”

“We waited over two years for Minister Plibersek to have her first conversation with us about the government’s Nature Positive laws. Though we have previously provided amendments to the Government, they were still light-years away from providing us with a compromise that is acceptable.”

“We have provided our asks to the Environment Minister’s office but have been met recently with radio silence, a stunning turnaround from their enthusiasm in the Parliamentary sitting weeks before the Nature Positive Summit. The ball is currently in their court to make progress on these Bills, but environmental reform clearly isn’t a priority for this Government. I would not be surprised if they let their legislation lapse before the Prime Minister calls the election.”

“It is an embarrassing set of circumstances for Labor who promised that their updated laws would be ‘better for the environment, better for business’. Instead, we are now considering a new bureaucracy in the form of a Federal Environment Protection Agency that does not guarantee improved environmental outcomes but does guarantee more red tape for businesses that are already struggling under this government. But even that has not been brought on for debate, let alone a vote in the Senate.”

“We still want the Albanese Labor Government to update the environmental laws that everybody knows are broken. They have failed to do this and have consequently failed their own test this term of government. The only ones they can blame are themselves.”