Prime Minister Anthony Albanese puts big asterisk on pursuit of EPA, claims Tanya Plibersek kept in the loop

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Prime Minister Anthony Albanese puts big asterisk on pursuit of EPA, claims Tanya Plibersek kept in the loop

Anthony Albanese is committed to creating a federal environment watchdog but only on Labor’s terms, as the fallout continues to his intervention to shelve the controversial plan during Parliament’s final sitting week of the year.

Mr Albanese faced a barrage of questions on Sunday about his decision to scuttle a deal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek reached with the Greens to deliver Labor’s promised EPA.

The Prime Minister said he told Ms Plibersek the deal was off before the Greens were advised, disputing suggestions he went behind the minister’s back.

He said the fate of the EPA took up just “10 to 15 minutes” of the hours of discussions about the Government’s priorities during Parliament’s chaotic final week, which ended with the passage of 45 bills.

Mr Albanese’s intervention – which followed lobbying from WA Premier Roger Cook and WA miners — leaves the future of the EPA in serious doubt with the Federal election fast approaching.

In an interview on ABC’s Insiders program., Mr Albanese said it was still his “intention to proceed” with laws to establish the nature watchdog.

But he stressed that would happen only “on the basis of our values”, clearly signalling Labor wouldn’t be offering major concessions to the Greens and crossbench to get it across the line.

“What we want to do is to ensure that there is proper protection of the environment, of sustainability, but also speedier approvals for things that should be approved,” Mr Albanese said.

“We want jobs to be created, we want industry to be supported and that’s why we need to get the balance right.”

Just four days ago, on Tuesday, Ms Plibersek reached an agreement with the Greens and independent senator David Pocock to end a months-long deadlock over the EPA – a 2022 Labor election promise.

But just hours later it was off the table after Mr Albanese stepped in, heading off what would have been a major backlash against Labor in the election battleground state of WA.

The decision has upset some Labor MPs and infuriated grassroots party members, who have accused the Prime Minister of capitulating to vested interests.

In the days since, speculation has intensified about the reasons for the intervention, with one suggestion that Mr Albanese shelved the laws after learning WA senator Fatima Payman – who held the potentially deciding vote – wouldn’t support it.

There has also been renewed focus on divisions between Mr Albanese and Ms Plibersek, which flared earlier in the EPA debate after the environment minister refused to rule out accepting the Greens’ demand for a “climate trigger”.

On Sunday, Mr Albanese – who has made clear he was in charge of the final EPA negotiations — rejected suggestions the Greens deal was agreed to before it was spiked.

He refused to confirm if he was aware of the written agreement between Ms Plibersek and the Greens.

“There’s no draft agreement to me,” Mr Albanese said, to which interviewer David Speers replied: “Are you saying that letter doesn’t exist?”

“Well, no letter to me exists.”

Mr Albanese said he spoke to Ms Plibersek to confirm there would be no deal with the Greens before it was relayed to the minor party.

Mr Albanese confirmed that position at a later meeting with Greens leader Adam Bandt, Greens environment Sarah Hanson-Young and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher to discuss what deals could be struck in Parliament’s final sitting days.

The Prime Minister said in the hours of discussions over Labor’s legislative backlog the EPA took up just 10 to 15 minutes in total.

Senator Hanson-Young on Sunday would not confirm if the original deal was reached with Ms Plibersek or Mr Albanese, batting away several questions about how the private talks with Labor played out.

“We all know what happened,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

“What happened was that the vested interests won the day. The mining lobby arced up, the loggers arced up and we couldn’t get the agreement done.”

Senator Hanson-Young said the Greens would push hard for the EPA to be revisited before next year’s election, describing it and gambling reform as “unfinished business” for the term.

“Nature needs us. We can’t just keep having nature bulldozed off the national agenda,” she said.

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