Labor’s Proposed Environmental Protection Agency Faces Tough Run Through Senate

Coalition warns the plan will hurt jobs and investment, while the Greens say it hands too much power to industry and fails to protect nature.

Current Environment Minister Murray Watt speaks during a press conference in Brisbane, Australia on July 22, 2022. Dan Peled/Getty Images

The Albanese Labor government’s latest attempt to overhaul Australia’s environmental laws has run into turbulence before even reaching Parliament.

The proposed rewrite of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act), championed by Environment Minister Murray Watt, has drawn criticism from both the Coalition and the Greens—for entirely different reasons.