Yet again the Greens have proven how far they will go, even at the expense of their pretensions to be fighting to avert the climate change catastrophe, in order to shore up the Australian Labor government and deliver the requirements of the corporate ruling class.
After talks on Wednesday night between Greens leaders and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the Greens helped the government ram through both houses of parliament by Friday morning seven “environmental” bills—about 1,500 pages of legislation—that particularly fast-track critical minerals and other war-related projects.
The Greens-assisted revamping of the 26-year-old Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act handed Albanese what the corporate media hailed as a major political win on the last day of parliament for 2025. It also sent a signal of the wider willingness of the Greens to assist the Albanese government to pursue its agenda of austerity and war preparations.
Above all, the laws give the government, via the environment minister, expanded powers to override all environmental regulations in order to approve “national interest proposals”—those deemed essential for “defence, security or strategic interests” or “Australia’s obligations under an agreement” with another country. Moreover, in the words of the legislation, that “does not limit the matters the Minister may consider.”
Among the “obligations” to other countries is the “framework on critical minerals and rare earths” signed by Albanese with the fascistic US President Donald Trump during a fawning event at the White House last month to supply the key ingredients needed for a war against China. The agreement pledged to speed up mining and processing project approvals by “de-regulating,” “streamlining” and slashing “red tape.”
In effect, the Greens politically rescued the government. Labor repeatedly vowed to get the huge package of bills through before parliament’s summer shutdown. Environment Minister Murray Watt declared it was “now or never” to update the EPBC Act, which has permitted untold damage to the environment since it was introduced by the right-wing Howard Liberal-National Coalition government in 1999.
Labor sought to secure a deal with the Coalition, but Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley failed at the last minute to match the Greens in offering amendments to secure swift passage of the legislation through the Senate, where the government lacks a majority.
Albanese publicly praised the “maturity” of Greens leader Senator Larissa Waters and Greens environmental spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young and thanked them for their “very constructive role.” He insisted that the bills were both “good for business and good for the environment.”
In all the media coverage, no explanation has been provided as to why the government was so desperate to rush the legislation through parliament before the end of the year. There has been no mention of the most pressing factor—Labor’s critical minerals agreement with Trump.
The Greens tried to justify their role by claiming to have obtained an amendment to prevent the “national interest” power being used to approve new coal and gas projects. But they had no objection to the power being strengthened for war-related purposes.
“I’m proud today that our environmental laws… will be meaningfully improved,” Waters said. This flies in the face of what the legislation states, on top of the “national interest” powers. Amid the mountain of details in the huge package of bills, these are the other key features:
The environment minister has vast discretionary executive powers, including to unliterally approve proposals, set environmental standards and exempt operations from those standards in a government-declared “national emergency,” even if that results in “unacceptable” environmental impacts.
Fast track environment approval for major corporate projects, with decisions promised in as little as 30 days, except for coal and gas mines.
There is no “climate trigger” as once demanded by the Greens. That is, there is no prohibition on projects that worsen climate change. Companies will only be required to disclose carbon emissions, without any requirement to lessen them.
A new national Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which will be at least as toothless as the EPAs that have existed for years in all the states and territories except Queensland. It will have no powers to stop new projects, only to issue temporary 14-day stop-work orders in the event of pollution or harm to a threatened species. The EPA can apply to courts to impose penalties of up to $1.65 million for a large company—a pittance for a transnational conglomerate—and even less for “accidental” breaches of set standards.
Companies will be able to proceed with projects, even if they violate the designated environmental standards, by trading off any proven damage to the environment by funding projects that ostensibly offset the harm.
The existing exemption for native forest logging operations will continue for another 18 months, with the government handing timber companies $300 million in the meantime to restructure their operations.
The laws will only partly close an agricultural land-clearing exemption. Clearing of vegetation older than 15 years will no longer be exempt from assessment and approval, along with any land-clearing within 50 metres of waterways in catchments flowing into the critically endangered Great Barrier Reef.
Corporate leaders generally expressed appreciation for the outcome, while criticising the Coalition leaders for failing to seal a deal that may have secured even greater protection of their interests and profits.
The Business Council of Australia, representing the largest corporations operating in the country, said there had been a “missed opportunity” for a bipartisan deal between Labor and the Coalition, but some of its “most significant” concerns had been addressed with “sensible changes.”
The Property Council, representing real estate developers, welcomed the deal, echoing Albanese’s statement that it was “a win for business and the environment.”
The Australian Financial Review, a mouthpiece for the financial elite, voiced appreciation for the part played by the Greens. The newspaper’s political editor Phillip Coorey said their “smart politics” had given the Greens a “significant policy win” that played them “back into relevance.”
What is the record of the government that the Greens are so anxious to prop up? Since taking office in 2022, the Albanese government has approved at least 31 new coal, oil and gas developments, which add up to a cumulative carbon emissions total of 6.5 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent over their lifetimes. Most recently, Labor approved an extension until 2070 of the giant North West Shelf (NWS) gas project, operated by Woodside Energy Group Ltd.
This makes a mockery of Labor’s claims to be seeking “net zero” emissions by 2050. In September, the government released its totally inadequate 2035 target of a 62-70 percent reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions relative to 2005 levels. That does not even count the much larger impact of Australian capitalism’s coal and gas exports, which by some measures make it the second-largest climate polluter by total carbon emissions per capita, second only to Russia.
This month’s COP30 climate summit in Brazil, like the previous international gatherings of government representatives, confirmed the failure of global capitalism to even approach the measures necessary to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. UN reports show the planet is on course to heat by 2.6 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.
According to scientific studies, this would expose billions of people to one or more of extreme heat and regular life-threatening heatwaves, regular droughts and wildfires, coastal and riverine flooding, far more frequent extreme storms, newly prevalent diseases, food shortages and price shocks, with the damage overwhelming affecting the poorest people of the planet.
To halt the climate crisis, there is no alternative but to overturn the entire capitalist profit system, the root source of environmental degradation. The Greens have again demonstrated their role as a party of the political establishment, working with Labor to uphold this destructive system.