Labor’s attempts to woo Greens and Coalition on nature laws revealed amid criticism of ‘coin toss’ | Australian politics

The fate of Labor’s nature laws hangs in the balance after further concessions to the Coalition and Greens failed to immediately convince either party to back them.

But Labor is continuing negotiations with both parties and may be prepared to give up more ground, as it desperately tries to reach an agreement to review the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) before Parliament adjourns for the year on Thursday evening.

The intensified negotiations come as the government’s advisory body on threatened species – the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (TSSC) – warned that the legislation had failed to strike the right balance to achieve the target of no further extinctions.

In a submission to a Senate inquiry examining the bills, the committee warned that the bills appeared to increase the minister’s discretion in deciding when environmental protections would be maintained and that this “could undermine” efforts to protect wildlife and avoid extinctions.

Environment Minister Murray Watt presented separate amendments to the Coalition and Greens on Tuesday morning, while continuing to seek potential deals with both.

Climate Council chief executive Amanda McKenzie criticized the government for treating the long-awaited reforms “like a coin toss”.

“Do they really care about protecting Australians and our environment from climate change, or is it just politics?” she said.

As part of his offer to the Greens, Watt had proposed several changes to address the party’s concerns that coal and gas projects could be fast-tracked under the new EPBC law.

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In one concession, the government was prepared to limit a new “assessment streamlining” process to restrict fossil fuel projects.

Labor was also prepared to reverse a controversial decision to return the so-called “water trigger” to the states and ensure the Commonwealth Minister retains the ability to approve projects, even under deals that delegate decision-making powers to the states.

As revealed on Saturday, coal and gas projects would also be excluded from a special “national interest” exemption if the Greens agreed to support the legislation.

After discussing the concessions at a party hall meeting on Tuesday morning, Guardian Australia understands the Greens were still unhappy with the laws.

The list of written amendments did not include the government’s offer to bring indigenous logging under national environmental standards within three years, while negotiations continued on this provision.

Greens environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the three-year deadline was “three years too long”.

Watt – who held further talks with Hanson-Young on Tuesday – is open to a shorter timetable but does not want to speculate on how quickly the government is prepared to act.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke to Watt on Tuesday morning and is expected to become more actively involved in the final stages of the negotiations.

Watt presented a separate series of concessions to the Coalition on Tuesday morning, which included imposing a 14-day delay on “stop work orders” and clarifying that maximum fines for violations of wilderness laws – which are set at $1.6 million for individuals and $825 million for businesses – would only apply in the “most serious and egregious cases”.

The latest offer did not include changes regarding “unacceptable impact” – a new definition which, if met, would result in an application being refused immediately.

Clarifying this definition has been a key demand from the Coalition and industry groups, who argue it would set the bar too low for a project to fail.

Legal and scientific experts take the opposite view, fearing that this provision does not adequately protect the most endangered species and ecosystems.

Liberal sources have confirmed that shadow environment minister Angie Bell told the Coalition’s joint party room meeting on Tuesday morning that failing to revise the definition was a “deal breaker” for the opposition.

Guardian Australia understands Watt remains open to overhauling the definition of “unacceptable impact” as well as the proposed new “net gain” test, which is supposed to force developers to compensate for harm and deliver an overall benefit to the environment.

Opposition leader Sussan Ley said the concessions offered on Tuesday morning were “totally insufficient”.

Ley said the fact Watt was negotiating simultaneously with the Coalition and the Greens showed his main motivation was a “political solution”.

“Right now we have an environment minister with two sets of amendments, one in each hand. They are radically different, these amendments,” she said.

“He says to the Coalition, make a deal with me. He says to the Greens, make a deal with me. What does that tell you? What that tells you is that he is a minister looking for a policy solution, not looking for the legislative reform we need to attract investment, to restore communities and jobs and to build the energy future this country deserves.”