New laws that would allow miners, farmers and other landholders to cash in on nature-boosting practices look set to pass the Australian parliament after Tanya Plibersek struck a deal with the Greens, her second in less than 10 days.
Key points:
- New laws will allow landholders including farmers and First Nations people to earn tradeable credits for protecting nature
- The federal government struck a deal with the Greens to pass the legislation before the end of the year
- Senators from across the aisle say the government is rushing the legislation through
In return for the Greens’ support to pass the Nature Repair bill, the government is expected to amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act so that the federal environment minister could have a greater say on how mining projects are approved.
The changes would see a tighter “water trigger” applied to mining developments, allowing greater federal scrutiny to be applied when water supplies are likely to be affected by fracking or mining, such as that which is proposed in the NT’s Beetaloo Basin.
According to a statement from the government the updated trigger, which already applies to coal seam gas projects, would be applied to unconventional gas projects such as shale gas.
Projects already in production would remain unaffected by the change.
The Nature Repair legislation wasn’t expected before the parliament until at least late April next year when a Senate inquiry into the bill had been expected to report.
A vote will now go to the Senate on Tuesday night.
The legislation seeks to establish a market for biodiversity certificates that would be regulated by the Clean Energy Regulator and traded in a way that is similar to Australian Carbon Credit Units, setting the foundations for a so-called “Green Wall Street”.
Farmers, miners, First Nations and other landholders could be eligible for the credits for projects that protect or boost biodiversity, such as fencing off creeks or removing invasive species such as feral cats.
Ms Plibersek has previously quoted an estimate by PWC that suggests “$137 billion of investment flow into nature repair between now and 2050 from a scheme like this”.
In a statement released Tuesday night, Ms Plibersek said the changes to the water trigger would apply to new unconventional gas projects.
“Expanding the water trigger is a sensible change that will make sure that we protect our most precious resource – water,” she said.
“We are making sure our regulations are keeping pace with changes in technology. If we don’t make this change, we could see different rules applied to different types of unconventional gas, with poorer environmental outcomes as a result.”
Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam accused the government of rushing the legislation through.
“The lack of scrutiny and the guillotining of debate, on such an important piece of legislation is shocking. This shambolic approach has subverted due process,” Senator Duniam said.
Independent Victorian Senator Lidia Thorpe also called for the debate to be deferred until next year.
Earlier this week, Ms Plibersek announced the appointment of The Nature Finance Council, to “provide advice to the government to increase private investment in nature [and] support businesses to better understand and embrace nature-related financial reporting.”
The council is chaired by former high-ranking public servant Ken Henry and was expected to hold its inaugural meeting this week.
The Greens’ support for Ms Plibersek’s legislation follows a deal to support major changes to the Murray-Darling Basin last week and comes two days after the minor party declared it could not support any legislation that permitted offsets.
“The idea of allowing the protection of one part of nature, a particular area of koala habitat, to be saved in order to justify the destruction of nature somewhere else – I mean that’s bonkers, that’s not environmental protection,” Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young told the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.
Legislation to reward farmers for improving and protecting the environment was first proposed by former Coalition agriculture minister David Littleproud.