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Plibersek’s “nature positive agenda” has been rebranded by Watt as “environment protection” and a senior government source, unauthorised to speak publicly, said the reforms would be tabled in parliament next week. Watt said getting the laws through Parliament was vital because current rules were failing the environment and business. “I have always said that stakeholders would need to be willing to compromise in order to get these vital laws passed,” Watt said after this story was first published. “No one will get everything they want.” “Australians are sick of the Coalition and the Greens teaming up to block progress on issues that matter.” Industry groups that were shown some of the details of the reforms, but were not authorised to speak publicly, said a new “unacceptable impacts” test granted the minister broad grounds to knock back new projects. The business sector is also worried that the new laws make the proponents of big-emitting projects, which could include mines, factories or processing facilities, prove their climate change mitigation plans before approval. An industry source portrayed this as a “backdoor” to enacting the Greens’ long-held demand for a “climate trigger” to block fossil fuel projects.
