The Albanese government has offered the Greens a deal sweetener on native forest logging as it tries to secure an agreement that would usher through its totemic environmental laws in the last parliamentary sitting week of the year.
A concession to have native forestry fall under the proposed National Environmental Standards after a three-year transitional period is being considered by the Greens. On Sunday, Environment Minister Murray Watt held a press conference in the Greens’ only lower-house electorate to try to increase pressure for the minor party’s support.
“We’ve deliberately chosen to do this event in the [Brisbane] electorate of Ryan because it is, of course, now the only electorate held by the Greens party in the House of Representatives anywhere across Australia,” Watt said.
“We saw at the last federal election that the Greens party paid a very big political price for being seen by the Australian people to be blocking progress on important things like housing and environmental law reform. So there’s a real opportunity for the Greens this week to demonstrate that they have heard the message from the Australian people that they’re not going to keep blocking progress.”
Ending the parliamentary year with a win on environment reform would be a triumph for the government, which scrapped a previous attempt before the May election, in part because of concern about blowback in Western Australia.
Labor won three of the Greens’ four lower house seats at the May election, including former party leader Adam Bandt’s seat of Melbourne. The party’s representation in the Senate remained stable despite a defection to Labor, granting it the balance of power in the upper house.
The proposed alteration from the government, which would not end native forest logging but would introduce stricter environmental standards, is being reviewed by the Greens. Environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the change was welcome, but the time frame would take too long.
“Another three years of destroying our forests … I don’t think in any way deals with the urgency of protecting our native forests now,” Hanson-Young told the ABC’s Insiders on Sunday.
“We’ll have a good look at this. We’ll kick the tyres on it … we need protections for native forests. I’ve said it publicly, I’ve said it privately, I’ve said it repeatedly. So the fact that they’ve put this on the table today is a good sign that they’re starting to listen.”
