EDITORIAL: Striking a deal with the Greens is in Labor’s nature

As campaign gaffes go, it was on the innocuous side.

On the hustings in Perth on Monday, Anthony Albanese was again asked what would happen should the May election result in a hung parliament, as the polls indicate it will.

“If you ask me: ‘Do you rule out governing in coalition with the Greens?’ the answer to that is ‘no’,” he said.

An unfortunate double negative, reversing the Prime Minister’s meaning.

Mr Albanese has consistently said he won’t agree to any form of power-sharing arrangement with the Greens should neither side of Parliament achieve the numbers needed to govern in majority.

But his slip of the tongue betrays what everyone knows — that Mr Albanese’s denials are ludicrous.

A hung parliament would leave Labor otherwise snookered. They’ll have no choice but to turn to the Greens.

The minor party’s leader Adam Bandt is already licking his lips at the prospect. He’s already offered Mr Albanese the Greens’ support, in exchange for Labor agreeing to a number of key policies.

It’s a worrying prospect. And one that isn’t made any less concerning through the Albanese Government’s strategy of burying its head in the sand and refusing to contemplate what could soon be a reality.

Also concerning is the confirmation that Labor’s Nature Positive legislation — which industry had hoped was dead and buried — will be resurrected by a second term Albanese Government. And that legislation will support the creation of a new Federal environmental protection agency, which opponents say will cause yet more delays through unnecessary duplication of red tape which already exists at State levels.

The Prime Minister claims he’s confident he can find a solution that ensures good outcomes for both the economy and the environment.

“What we’ll do is work it through, we’ll consult widely, make sure that we get it right and that is what we will legislate,” he said.

“Something that provides certainty for industry and the way that process occur, but also provides for sustainability. That is what we’re after.”

That would be a considerable feat, considering Labor failed to do so in its first term, even with the benefit of majority.

It means that we won’t know before the election what Nature Positive 2.0 will look like, or what landmines for productivity are buried in its fine print.

It didn’t have to be this way.

Labor could have pushed harder to get a deal done with the support of the Coalition last year. Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek thought she was calling Peter Dutton on his bluff when she threatened to go to Greens instead.

But the Opposition Leader wasn’t bluffing.

For Ms Plibersek’s colossal error in tactics, we’re all now paying the price.

For now, industry can do little but to wait nervously to see the outcome of the election, and what shape the zombified Nature Positive laws will take should the rise from the grave after May 3.