Nature Positive: Miners lobby key crossbenchers to sink Federal EPA , Senator Fatima Payman may hold key

The State’s peak business and mining groups are urging Anthony Albanese to intervene to kill off any potential deal with the Greens to create a new federal Environment Protection Agency.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry WA and Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA issued the direct appeal to the Prime Minister as other mining and business groups frantically lobby key crossbench senators who could decide the fate of Labor’s promised nature watchdog.

Fatima Payman looms as a potential kingmaker as the rogue WA senator weighs up whether to support laws with major implications for her home State.

After capitulating on their demands on Labor’s housing bills earlier this week, speculation was rife on Tuesday the Greens could do so again on Nature Positive.

Senior Labor sources late on Tuesday night confirmed there was no deal with the Greens and the laws were unlikely to be debated before Parliament rises for the summer break on Thursday.

The Greens already walked back their key demand for a climate trigger and offered to pass the EPA Bill if the Government agreed to capture native forest logging under federal environment law.

The federal EPA – which Labor promised at the 2022 election – is the second stage of Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s hugely controversial Nature Positive plan.

The third and final tranche, which will include a suite of national environmental standards, was put on the backburner months ago and almost certainly won’t be revisited until after next year’s election.

With an election on the horizon and Labor facing a massive legislative backlog, many industry insiders had formed the view the EPA had been shelved.

But that view shifted on Tuesday as rumours of an imminent Labor-Greens deal sent alarming bells ringing across the sector.

In a joint letter to Mr Albanese, seen by The West, CCIWA boss Chris Rodwell and CME chief executive Rebecca Tomkinson said passing the EPA Bill even without a “climate trigger” would cause “great damage” to the State.

The pair warned the new federal agency threatened mining projects, housing developments and new transmission infrastructure essential to the green energy shift.

“As such, if the Bill passes it will exacerbate the current cost of living crisis,” they said.

The business chiefs said Mr Albanese should allow laws to lapse and restart consultation on the entire Nature Positive plan in the next term of Parliament.

In a veiled threat to Labor, the pair said if the bill was allowed to pass it would be a “key focus for WA business and industry in the lead up to the next Federal election”.

Mr Albanese was responsible for first shutting down the Greens’ demand for a climate trigger and has long favoured a deal with the Coalition.

He offered to water-down the EPA’s powers in a bid to win Peter Dutton’s backing – but the offer was never accepted.

The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) and Business Council of Australia (BCA) ramped up their lobbying of key crossbenchers as rumours of a potential Labor-Greens deal intensified.

If Labor gets the Greens on board, it would still need three crossbench votes to get it through the Senate.

The West has confirmed the Government is in active negotiations with independent senator David Pocock and Lidia Thorpe.

Senior industry sources are confident Jacqui Lambie and Tammy Tyrrell will oppose the legislation but are still unsure about Senator Payman’s intentions.

After a meeting with Senator Payman on Tuesday afternoon, MCA chief executive Tania Constable said the Labor outcast was “pro West Australian” who understood what the laws meant for her home state.

Senator Payman’s office declined to comment, as did the offices of Ms Plibersek and Greens environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black was “deeply concerned” at the prospect of a Labor-Greens deal.

“If the Greens get their way, there will likely be significant economic harm inflicted on the WA economy and jobs,” Mr Black said.

Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Warren Pearce said the Government was “putting the lifeblood of the Australian economy at risk” if it rushed the laws through.