Coalition pushes to break up environment bill as fight over new nature laws heads to parliament

Coalition wants to split reforms of the federal environmental regime into two parts, prioritizing measures to speed up projects but perhaps further delaying environmental protections.

Leader of the Opposition, Susan Leyhas made a “constructive” proposal to Anthony Albanese ahead of the return of federal parliament on Monday, which is expected to be dominated by political fighting over long-awaited legislation updating the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

New nature laws are expected to be passed this week, but the government's hopes of passing them before Christmas appear dim after the Coalition and Greens ruled out supporting them without major concessions.

The Coalition argues the laws are anti-business, while the Greens argue the opposite, accusing Environment Secretary Murray Watt of crafting changes that have “the fingerprints of big business and mining companies all over them”.

After calling the bills a “handbrake” on investment last week, Ley told Albanese the coalition was ready to work with Labor to achieve “meaningful reforms” for business and the environment.

But she wants the Prime Minister to agree to split the bill in two, looking first at “practical” measures to speed up project assessment timelines, while effectively pushing the bill's “more controversial environmental elements” to the sidelines.

“The government itself has recognized that streamlining environmental permitting is essential to boost declining productivity and encourage investment, including in the critical minerals sector,” Ley and shadow environment minister Angie Bell wrote in a letter to Albanese, which was seen by Guardian Australia.

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“However, the reform project risks adding further complexity and uncertainty by creating a handbrake on investment without delivering commensurate environmental benefits.”

The letter does not list the Coalition's specific concerns, but Liberal sources confirmed they are including “unspecified” tests in the assessment process, including a proposed definition of “unacceptable impact” on the environment – a threat companies with $825 million fines for violation of environmental legislation and emissions reporting requirements.

Albanese will not be in Canberra to respond to Lay's proposal as the Prime Minister is away from Parliament this week to attend. regional leaders summits in Malaysia and South Korea.

But the government is unlikely to accept Lay's proposal, partly because Watt drafted the laws as one package to avoid one of the main criticisms of Tanya Plibersek's failed attempts to update the EPBC Act in her previous term.

Plibersek's decision to implement reform in stages, starting with the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has been criticized for delaying the actual task of fixing environmental laws.

Watt announced his EPA model on Sunday, confirming the minister will retain decision-making authority on projects.

Retaining ministerial decision-making powers satisfies a key demand of the Coalition and industry and is not opposed by the Greens.

But it was criticized by the Australian Conservation Foundation, which wanted to create an independent agency that would make decisions at arm's length from the government.

The row over environmental laws will coincide with the Net Zero Coalition's ongoing internal battle, which will intensify when MPs meet to discuss the position on Friday.

The national government is conducting its own internal review of climate targets, led by anti-net zero campaigner Matt Canavan.

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In an interview with ABC Insiders, Canavan would not confirm whether the review, which is expected to lead to the party's departure from zero, was complete, but said he would provide an update to his Nationals colleagues.

Barnaby Joyce is not expected to attend the briefing following his high-profile public split from the party he once led.

Amid speculation that he plans to defect to One Nation, Joyce said on Sunday that he is still a member of the National Assembly but will not attend any party meetings in the next two weeks.

“I will remain in the National Championship but will not participate in any party room as it is unfair to the privacy of other members and senators,” he said.

“Besides, they [the Nationals] staying net zero as a policy that I cannot be a part of as it is simply a windfall for the super rich few at the expense of others without any climate impact.”

On Monday, the Senate also plans to debate legislation designed to fully create “guardian” to oversee the “triple zero” system.

First recommended after the major Optus outage in 2023, the government rushed to pass the legislation after the telco's catastrophic outage in September, which resulted in three deaths.

Greens communications spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said her party would introduce amendments to increase fines for telecoms companies and add the prospect of criminal penalties.

Shadow communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh said the opposition would again table amendments in the Senate to double the maximum fine for triple-zero blackouts to $20 million after the same proposal was defeated in the Labour-controlled lower house.

A government spokesman told Guardian Australia: “Our priority is to strengthen the triple zero system and that is what this bill will do.”

“We will work constructively with colleagues on the two bills currently before Parliament to ensure telecoms companies are held to account.”