Historic Environmental Reform Finally Reaches Finish Line
After years of political stalemate and broken promises, the Australian government has successfully passed sweeping reforms to the nation's environmental protection laws. In a dramatic parliamentary conclusion on November 29, 2025, Labor struck a last-minute deal with the Greens to secure passage of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act amendments through the Senate.
The breakthrough came on the final parliamentary sitting day of the year, marking the end of a tortuous five-year reform process. The updated legislation represents the first major overhaul of Australia's environmental laws in 25 years, replacing framework that multiple reviews had declared unfit for purpose.
What the Compromise Deal Delivers
Neither side is declaring the bill a complete victory. Labor senator Michelle Ananda-Rajah described the legislation as "not perfect" during its second reading, while the Greens labeled it "woefully short" on climate action. Environment Minister Murray Watt negotiated with both the Coalition and Greens to secure passage, leaving some concessions for business and the Liberal Party while granting key environmental protections.
The original 500-page draft bill introduced in late October contained several controversial elements that raised environmental concerns. These included significant ministerial discretion over applying new national environmental standards, wide-ranging national interest exemptions for fast-tracking projects, and provisions allowing developers to pay into a "restoration fund" to compensate for biodiversity loss.
Key Concessions Won by the Greens
The Greens secured several important amendments in their negotiations with Labor. Their most significant victory came in the form of better protection for native forests. The deal removes the longstanding exemption for logging industry operations in areas covered by Regional Forest Agreements, meaning these forested areas will now fall under federal environment laws.
Other Greens wins include banning fast-tracking of new coal and gas projects and reining in ministerial discretion. The language around compliance with National Environmental Standards was strengthened from "not inconsistent with" to "consistent with" - a change that represents a stricter legal test for project approvals.
The amendments will also bring more land clearing under environmental assessment and allow the minister to declare some matters too important to be offset through the controversial Restoration Contributions Fund.
Wins for Business and the Liberal Party
Business groups had expressed concerns about the original bill's definition of "unacceptable impacts" on critically endangered species. The compromise deal appears to have adopted Liberal senator Jonathon Duniam's proposed changes to this definition.
The revised definition now states that an unacceptable impact occurs when a project "seriously impairs viability" rather than the broader "likely to seriously impair viability" threshold in the original draft. The term "seriously impair" has been redefined as resulting in "an impairment or alteration of the thing that is of a severe nature and extent" - language that may make it harder to reject development projects.
Will the New Laws Actually Protect Nature?
The bar for improvement is undeniably low. Under the current system, 99% of projects assessed receive approval, and many are never assessed at all. Professor Graeme Samuel, who conducted the scathing 2020 review of Australia's environment laws, described the compromise deal as striking a "great balance" between environmental and business concerns.
However, significant questions remain. The government has only drafted two of the many anticipated environmental standards, and the Greens were unable to remove the controversial "pay to destroy" mechanism that allows developers to compensate for biodiversity loss through payments.
Much will depend on how key terms in the legislation are interpreted in future court proceedings, and whether the reforms are backed by adequate public investment and rigorous enforcement. The true test will be whether these long-awaited changes can reverse Australia's alarming trends of declining threatened species populations and ecosystem collapse driven by climate change.
