Finally. It was time.

Thank you Murray. Thank you Champs. Thank you Labor.

The Labor Environment Action Network has been working since 2017 to reform the national environment laws so that they actually protect the environment. Our members persuaded 500 Labor branches to change the national platform to get an independent environmental protection agency. We kept it in the National Platform after the 2019 election defeat. We pushed for a concrete 2025 election commitment.

No reform is perfect, but this is a huge step forward. We now have rules where there were no rules and outcomes-based benchmarks to deliver for the environment instead of just process.

Here is some of what Labor has done for biodiversity, renewable energy and housing:

• An independent national EPA
• An independent national environmental data agency
• Legislated unacceptable impacts
• Outcomes-based national environmental standards subject to no regression
• A requirement for developers to deliver a ‘net gain’ to the environment
• Tough compliance measures with penalties commensurate with industrial manslaughter
• Bringing native forest logging under national environmental standards
• Ending the exemption for environmentally destructive land clearing
• A quicker and better process to approve renewable energy and housing
• Assurances around not fast-tracking fossil fuels

Quote attributable to Louise Crawford, National Co-Convenor:

‘Hundreds of Labor branches and thousands of rank and file Labor members have made clear repeatedly over nearly a decade that they want this reform. Today is a huge win for them.’