Nature Positive laws: Peter Dutton accused Anthony Albanese of playing ‘two-card trick’ after Senate listing

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has accused the Prime Minister of playing a “two-card trick” over the so-called Nature Positive laws, despite warnings the bill is a “threat to jobs”.

Anthony Albanese declared the bills in their current form “should not be progressed” in November, after intense lobbying from industry as well as WA Premier Roger Cook — but the legislation has been listed on the Senate’s notice paper for next week.

The Nightly understands the office of Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has been lobbying industry to support the bill after the Prime Minister intervened to torpedo a deal struck she struck with the Greens in November.

“The Prime Minister has been playing this two-card trick which has not worked and the fact is that the Prime Minister, I think, is being deceitful with the population,” Mr Dutton said on Thursday.

“If the Prime Minister is trying to stitch up a secret deal before the election, he should release those details so that people know about it before they vote at the election.”

Mr Cook blamed “east coast MPs” for the Bill’s revival on Wednesday, and warned them “the reason why you can afford your long mac and your lattes is because of WA industry.”

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said WA would play an important part in any decision making, but made it clear the Bill was not dead in the water.

“We deeply respect the views of WA industry. We are continuing to work through this and are talking to all stakeholders,” she said.

But in Perth on Thursday, two Federal WA frontbenchers appeared to refute the WA Premier’s claim the current bill is a “threat to jobs”.

“My view is that we need sensible environmental reform at the national level,” assistant minister for climate change Josh Wilson said.

He rejected industry claims the nature positive laws go further than Labor promised in 2022.

“We could have made progress on those reforms if the Senate had seen fit to support them,” he said.

“The Coalition have wanted to throw it in the dust bin because, frankly, they want to wreck and block everything.”

Minister for Veterans’ Affairs Matt Keogh said it would be up to the Senate to decide whether the legislation progressed.

“The legislation does exactly what WA industry has been asking for, which is to provide more streamlined processes for environmental approvals,” he said.

“That’s what we support in the Senate and we don’t support any changes that would detract from that.”

Without Coalition support, the Albanese Government needs the Greens’ 11 votes and support from three cross-benchers to get legislation passed in the Senate.

The Greens said on Thursday their position has not changed, demanding an end to native forest logging in return for their votes.

Ms Plibersek said on Wednesday that the Government was “working to fix John Howard’s broken environment laws so they are better for nature, and better for business”.

“The Government currently has a Bill before the Senate to establish Australia’s first Federal Environment Protection Agency, and I’d urge every Senator to vote for it,” she said.

The WA Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chamber of Minerals and Energy, Minerals Council of Australia and the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies have all spoken out to demand more consultation before the legislation is put to a vote.

“It is unclear what deal has been cut for Nature Positive to be back on the table,” AMEC acting CEO Neil van Drunen said.

“There is substantial concern in industry that a climate trigger has been reheated or there has been an increase in green tape.

“It’s unclear what paint job the Government has given Nature Positive, but underneath the hood nothing’s changed.

Meanwhile, correspondence between Ms Plibersek and Greens environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young, and independent senator David Pocock — released under Freedom of Information — revealed the minister had heralded the deal brokered with the crossbench as “critical” in the days before the PM intervened.

It confirms she had reached a written agreement to amend the plan in exchange for the minor party and Senator Pocock’s support, less than 24 hours before the PM scuttled the deal amid pressure from miners and the Cook government.

But the contents of the deal were redacted — prompting shadow environment minister Jonno Duniam to demand clarity.

“Labor must release the details of the secret deal with the Greens and the crossbench to pass their Nature Positive laws,” he said.

“The deal was set in stone, ready to go. Now Environment Minister and Labor MPs are campaigning to bring this legislation back. The Prime Minister needs to regain control of his Party because these internal battles are doing nothing to improve the lives of Australians doing it tough under this Government.””