What does the Coalition want on the environment laws? It is hard to say, because it is mostly about throwing weight around, rather than actually getting a win. Industry and the business community want the government to do the deal with the Coalition so that there are no more environmental protections in place, and that tells you everything you need to know about the intent of these laws. Business has been fairly muted on the Coalition’s dumping of net zero precisely because it is hoping it will just come to their side and pass the laws. The whole thing is a mess.

Angie Bell told Sky Business this morning:

Well, certainly we put forward seven main issues that we have with the bill, but there are
many more. And there’s a secondary list as well that I’ve asked the Minister to look at, certainly the Environmental Protection authority’s powers, and we want to make sure that the CEO is accountable to the Minister, has KPIs, and that there is a binding agreement around that, so that the CEO can be dismissed if they do not perform.

That’s certainly a stakeholder concern.
There’s the definition or lack of definition around unacceptable impacts and also net gain
that is in the bills. Stakeholders are concerned about that, so we need clarity on that.

We want to make sure that there’s streamlined pathways, and that the pathways the Minister is
suggesting to take away, which are no longer in the bills, are put back in the bills. Because
stakeholders are concerned around the impact that may have on projects, and of course, that
means jobs at the end of the day.

There are very many other issues. I can outline all of them, if you like, but there’s some duplication around emissions reporting as well that we think is unnecessary because it’s already reported under the safeguard mechanism.