Editorial: Nature Positive opened Labor’s wounds

Anthony Albanese often boasts of his ability to cut a deal in Parliament.

As leader of the House under former prime minister Julia Gillard, Albanese points to the Labor minority government passing more than 550 laws through the 2010 hung parliament.

But now he is the leader of the nation, and faces the threat of losing its majority, those deals are much harder to make.

Take the Government’s Environmental Protection Agency — promised late in the election campaign as part of its wider green agenda.

In today’s The West Australian, we reveal the inside story of Labor’s struggle to introduce and pass the laws.

The months-long fight has exposed tensions inside the party, splits within the Liberals and Nationals, and confirmed the mining industry’s biggest fear — a deal with Greens and a “climate trigger”.

Concerns have mounted over the inclusion of such a trigger in the laws, which would force decision-makers to consider greenhouse gas emissions when assessing new projects.

Estimates from the Institute of Public Affairs showed the policy would threaten $220 billion of investment — including $112 billion in WA.

Albanese and his Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek flagged concessions to the laws, even before a major campaign push across WA last week.

After they had returned to the east, Premier Roger Cook called for a deal between Labor and the Coalition, not the Greens.

“The only way these laws are going to get through is either through a deal with the Greens or a deal with the Opposition,” Mr Cook said.

“It has to be a deal with the Opposition in order to make sure that the doors are sensible, that they benefit everyone and don’t represent the hindrance to Western Australia.”

As senior mining industry figures descend on Canberra this week to recognise the contribution of the sector and its workers to Australia, the warnings will continue to mount against the damage of dealing with the Greens.

Industry has shifted its focus to lobbying senior Coalition figures to do a deal with Labor, with one industry source saying miners have made a calculation it was better to accept and legislate a watered-down EPA than wait until after the election.

Under a Labor-Greens minority government — which is a serious likelihood in a hung parliament after the next election — an EPA could seriously threaten industry and WA.

Enough warnings have been issued, from within the Prime Minister’s own party, and industry, over the impact a deal with the Greens could cause.

One Liberal source told The West the Opposition should sit this one out and cause “as much pain as possible” for Labor.

But that pain will turn into the nation’s.

Cutting a deal with the Greens means cutting loose a whole swathe of Labor MPs’ seats to the Opposition, and cutting off Australia’s economic lifeline — Western Australia.