Nature Positive laws: Mining heavyweights urge PM to intervene on controversial environmental plan

A coalition of corporate heavyweights privately appealed to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to intervene to re-write Labor’s Nature Positive Plan amid fears it would devastate the economy, secret correspondence reveals.

Hancock Prospecting chief executive Garry Korte and Rio Tinto iron ore boss Simon Trott were among seven signatories to a letter to Mr Albanese detailing “serious concerns” with the planned shakeup of environmental laws and the closed-door consultation process used to design it.

“As currently proposed, we estimate that the reform could and is likely to lead to billions of dollars of lost investment and tens of thousands of lost jobs in Western Australia alone,” the letter, released under freedom of information read.

“In important areas like agriculture, housing, tourism, infrastructure, renewable energy and critical minerals developments, this reform could have undesirable severe impacts across the economy, including on economic productivity, and act contrary to your Government’s stated economic policy objectives.”

The letter was dated March 28 – a day after The Nightly revealed the Federal Government was expected to carve up the Nature Positive reforms after a major backlash from the mining industry.

Labor has since pushed ahead with the next stage, introducing laws to establish a federal environmental protection agency, while the third and most contentious tranche – which will include new environmental standards – is on the backburner.

In the letter, the business leaders said the “seriousness of the matter” warranted Mr Albanese personally stepping in, effectively sidelining Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

Mr Korte and Mr Trott’s names are the only signatories visible on the letter, with the other five - also from WA-based businesses - redacted.

The Nightly understands the other signatories include leaders in the housing and mining sectors.

The letter detailed nine requests, that include ending the secrecy around the consultation process, limiting the powers of the federal EPA and re-thinking the proposed penalty regime.

The letter indicated the Government was at one point considering penalties of as much as 10 per cent of a company’s annual turnover – which could have amounted to billions of dollars for big miners.

The final penalty regime appears to have been watered down, with penalties for serious intentional breaches of environmental law to be set at a maximum of $780 million or, in criminal cases, seven years’ imprisonment.

Other requests have fallen on deaf ears, including around the scope of the federal EPA.

The business leaders wanted the federal EPA’s role limited to compliance – as Labor flagged ahead of the 2022 election.

But the Government now wants to create a far more powerful agency that would be responsible for approving projects, except in cases where the application is “called in” for ministerial assessment.

“Decision-making requires consideration of complex factors in addition to environmental impacts including from an economic, social and national interest perspective,” the letter said.

“An unelected EPA with core capability in environmental aspects only is inherently ill-suited to this role.”

The chain of secret correspondence, published this week, showed the business leaders initially received an autoreply advising them the letter had been handballed to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.

Two weeks later, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet wrote back to acknowledge that was a mistake and confirm it was now considering the letter.

Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Patrick Gorman responded to the group on Mr Albanese’s behalf on May 16 – more than six weeks after the letter was sent.

Mr Gorman restated the Government’s view that the Nature Positive Plan would deliver a system that “works better for business and nature”.

“The Government will take the time to get the reform rights, and will continue to consult closely with stakeholders throughout, including releasing a comprehensive exposure draft of the third stage of the new laws for public consultation prior to their introduction to Parliament,” Mr Gorman wrote.