EDITORIAL: Tanya Plibersek needs to rethink Nature Positive Plan as Environment Protection Agency role reduced

The resource sector is big.

The projects are big and the contribution to jobs, government coffers and the economy is bigger.

Even Anthony Albanese claims to have seen that, waxing lyrical last week about the scale of the sector: “You have to see one of those trains where you can see the front of the train but you can’t see the end of it.”

What is also big is the hole the Federal Government has been digging for itself over the controversial Nature Positive Plan.

The idea has been a shambles from the start, born out of secrecy which saw the so-called “consultation process” conducted in the darkness, far from the light of public scrutiny.

It should not be forgotten that invitees to closed-door briefings with Government were barred from even bringing in mobile phones and laptops, instead having to rely only on handwritten notes to take in what is incredibly complex legislative reform.

They were then given just a few weeks to respond to what was a radical shake-up of the way business operates in this country.

Little wonder then that the business community reacted with alarm, warning that rather than bring about better environmental and business outcomes, it would wrap the industry in more green tape in a more complicated regulatory system.

The Nightly revealed last month that so great was the danger posed by Nature Positive to our national prosperity that a group of corporate heavyweights banded together to make a collective appeal to Mr Albanese.

Their message was clear: Nature Positive would devastate industry, rip untold billions out of the economy and put tens of thousands of Australians out of work and into the dole queue.

Today The Nightly can reveal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek is open to watering down the plan, including gutting the flagship Environment Protection Agency, in a bid to secure the Coalition’s support.

It is understood Labor is considering stripping the proposed agency of decision-making powers on project applications, reducing its role to policing nature laws and enforcing tougher penalties.

The possible concession could, if agreed, address some industry concerns about the risks of handing an independent agency the power to approve projects.

The Opposition is yet to reach a final position, with talks with Labor expected to intensify after a Senate inquiry into the proposal hands down its findings on Monday.

What must not be forgotten is that these Nature Positive laws are anything but positive.

They are in reality a zone of terror for so many parts of the Australian community, particularly as we head towards what looms as a potential Labor/Greens/Teals minority government.

Labor is not averse to trying to redirect attention away from areas of contention.

It has a track record of saying one thing and then doing another.

It must not be allowed to somehow sneak through a radical green agenda via political horse-trading.

There is too much at risk. For the nation and all of us.