Labor’s nature laws risk collapse with deal yet to be struck on eve of parliament’s final sitting day | Australian politics

November 26, 2025 by Cnznews

Anthony Albanese has not struck a deal to rewrite federal nature laws before the day of Parliament’s final meeting of the year, putting long-promised reforms at risk of collapsing for the second time in 12 months.

But political, industry and environmental movement sources expect the Greens to eventually accept an 11th-hour deal after Labor offered new concessions to secure the smaller party’s support.

The government was locked in tense talks with the Greens and the Coalition on Wednesday as it races to meet a self-imposed deadline to overhaul the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act before Parliament recesses for the summer.

The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has joined talks to resolve the impasse, speaking directly with his Greens counterpart Larissa Waters.

Albanese’s active role in party-to-party negotiations on legislation is usually a sign that negotiations have reached a dead end.

Government sources confirmed that no deal had been reached as of Wednesday night.

The prime minister had not held leader-to-leader talks with Sussan Ley as of Wednesday night, although the environment minister, Murray Watt, spoke again with his Liberal counterpart, Angie Bell.

Watt’s meeting with Bell showed that the government was open to a possible deal with the Coalition, although that option was considered less likely after Ley described Labour’s offer as “grossly inadequate”.

Guardian Australia understands the opposition requested additional business-friendly changes on Wednesday, further complicating the prospects for a last-minute agreement between the major parties.

After an initial package of concessions, which also included measures to effectively stop the fast-tracking of coal and gas projects, failed to impress the Greens, the government on Wednesday offered the smaller party further changes.

Guardian Australia has not seen the revised proposal and neither the Greens or the government will confirm details of the updated proposal.

The Greens party room met on Wednesday to consider a position.

Inspired by Graeme Samuel’s 2020 review of the EPBC Act, the bill promises to better protect nature through new environmental standards, as well as speed up project assessment.

It would also establish a new Environmental Protection Agency – a Labor election promise in the last two federal ballot papers.

This bill has faced sharp criticism from all sides. Environmentalists warn it will not properly tackle the extinction crisis, while the industry fears some features, particularly the proposed new “unacceptable impact”, could cause projects to fail.

If Labor cannot secure a deal on Thursday, it will be the second time in 12 months that planned reforms to the EPBC Act have been taken off the agenda.

In the previous term of Parliament, former Environment Minister, Tanya Plibersek, proposed a phased approach to reforms and introduced legislation to establish an Environmental Protection Agency.

But while Plibersek was on the verge of an agreement with the Greens and independent senator David Pocock, the bill was vetoed by the Prime Minister after pressure from the Western Australian government and the mining sector.

Albanese decided not to revive the bill before the federal election in May, delaying reform work until returning to power.

In an email to supporters on Wednesday, the Labor Environment Action Network (LEAN) – which has campaigned for years to fix the EPBC Act – said it preferred a government together with the Greens.

The email, seen by Guardian Australia, said: “The Greens proposal covers most of LEAN’s key questions, and we hope it will be the way forward. The Coalition proposal, although clearly shoddy, does not catastrophically weaken the Labor bills.”

“We are staying positive, although we are nervous, and we know many of you feel the same way.”

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