‘Not our job to make a bad bill better,’ says shadow environment minister
The shadow environment minister, Angie Bell, is doing the media rounds this morning, and sits in the “hot seat” – as she calls it – on RN Breakfast after Murray Watt.
The Coalition says its chief concerns lie in the “wide-ranging powers” of the new environment protection body that will be set up, along with the fact that the head of the EPA will not report directly to the minister.
It will be a statutory appointment that will not report directly to the minister. The minister won’t be able to sack that individual. It’ll have to be the governor general that does that. And so, that is a problem in terms of what that outcome might look like in terms of broad-sweeping powers, definitely.
Bell said earlier this morning that Australians should be “alarmed” if Labor go to the Greens to pass this bill. So, host Sally Sara asks, how much the Coalition is willing to compromise in their negotiations to ensure Labor keeps talking to them? Bell says:
Certainly it’s not our job to make a bad bill better but there are some areas that we have concerns on, and we’ll continue to put those areas forward as a problem.
Key events
Victoria forced to rely on One Nation and others to pass voluntary assisted dying bill
Benita Kolovos
After two days of debate, changes to Victoria’s voluntary assisted dying laws passed parliament last night.
The amendments, which allow doctors to initiate conversations about voluntary assisted dying and expand the eligibility timeframe for all terminal illnesses to 12 months, passed 67 votes to 13.
MPs were granted a conscience vote, with Labor MPs Anthony Carbines, Natalie Suleyman, Iwan Walters, Anthony Cianflone and Kathleen Matthews-Ward all voting against their own government’s bill.
Liberal MPs Kim Wells, Brad Rowswell, Richard Riordan, David Hodgett, Michael O’Brien, Nicole Werner, Chris Crewther and Nationals MP Peter Walsh also voted against the bill.
The bill will now head to the upper house, where Labor doesn’t have a majority but should be able to pass the bill with the support of a motley crew including One Nation and Liberal MPs. Here’s our story from yesterday:
Shadow environment minister says no ‘rush’ to pass environment bill
While Murray Watt wants the bill passed this year (and says there’s a “strong national interest” in getting the reforms passed ASAP), Angie Bell is now asking “what the rush is”.
As we mentioned earlier, it’s five years to the day since Graeme Samuel laid out his reforms to the former Coalition government. On ABC RN Breakfast, Bell says the bill needs to be balanced, and needs to be done right.
I don’t really understand what the rush is. Originally, the minister said he would pass this bill in 12 to 18 months, and now it’s been expedited after the treasurer’s roundtable.
A quick recap here: the government pledged at the economic roundtable in August that it would introduce the environmental reforms before Christmas.
When Bell says the government “failed” in the last parliament to get this done, Sally Sara points out that the Coalition and then-environment minister Sussan Ley also couldn’t get it across the line.
Bell says Ley brought two bills forward which were blocked by Labor and the Greens, and accuses Watt of only consulting with a select few stakeholders on the reforms.
Our environment is going backwards, and we need to stop that. But we also need to make sure that this bill is balanced … we don’t think it’s balanced at this point in time.
We’re open to continuing to talk with the minister on how these bills can be improved to make sure that there is a balance struck and that industry, jobs and investment don’t get a raw deal out of this.
‘Not our job to make a bad bill better,’ says shadow environment minister
The shadow environment minister, Angie Bell, is doing the media rounds this morning, and sits in the “hot seat” – as she calls it – on RN Breakfast after Murray Watt.
The Coalition says its chief concerns lie in the “wide-ranging powers” of the new environment protection body that will be set up, along with the fact that the head of the EPA will not report directly to the minister.
It will be a statutory appointment that will not report directly to the minister. The minister won’t be able to sack that individual. It’ll have to be the governor general that does that. And so, that is a problem in terms of what that outcome might look like in terms of broad-sweeping powers, definitely.
Bell said earlier this morning that Australians should be “alarmed” if Labor go to the Greens to pass this bill. So, host Sally Sara asks, how much the Coalition is willing to compromise in their negotiations to ensure Labor keeps talking to them? Bell says:
Certainly it’s not our job to make a bad bill better but there are some areas that we have concerns on, and we’ll continue to put those areas forward as a problem.
Following on from last post …
Watt is facing a lot of questions about how the new act would define a project that has an “unacceptable” impact on the environment which would trigger an immediate refusal. Along with that comes another power in the draft act which would allow the minister to override some environmental rules if a project is in the national interest.
Watt tells RN Breakfast an unacceptable impact would be something like a project wanting to mine under Uluru or clear a habitat that would “drive a species to extinction”.
On the issue around national interest, Watt says the legislation gives a “flavour” of what that might look like – and emphasises it was an explicit recommendation of Graeme Samuel.
Governments of the day should, in very rare circumstances, have the ability when something is in the national interest to approve a project proceeding, even if it doesn’t meet the usual environmental standards. What we’ve said in the bill is to try to give a flavour of the types of projects that we’re talking about would be most likely defence or security projects, actions that may be undertaken in responding to a natural disaster. We have made the point that that should be rarely used, that there’s got to be transparency with the minister of the day issuing a statement of reasons justifying why they’ve done that. And just to be clear, that decision to approve a project in the national interest would occur after a full assessment was done.
Third time’s the charm? Watt says so
After two failed attempts by parliaments past to legislate the EPBC reforms, Murray Watt, the latest minister to tackle the challenge, says he’s “very confident” the government will pass the reforms.
But, he adds, the real question is with whom and how soon – with neither the Coalition nor the Greens willing to pass the legislation without considerable concessions.
In somewhat poetic timing, today, Watt says, marks five years to the day since Graeme Samuel handed down his landmark review into the current EPBC Act to then environment minister Sussan Ley. Speaking to ABC RN Breakfast this morning, he says:
It really is now or never, if we ever want to pass these reforms we’ve got to get moving with them. We can’t let this go around in circles for five more years because every time we wait and every time we get delayed, we see the environment suffer and we see really important housing, renewables, and other projects get held up in red tape.
Question mark remains over future of Tomago aluminium smelter
There’s still a question mark over the future of the Tomago aluminium smelter in NSW, as the commonwealth negotiates with the state and Rio Tinto.
Despite lauding the government’s $2bn green aluminium announced early this year – which Rio Tinto called a “critical piece in helping future-proof the industry” – the mining company has said high energy prices are reducing the viability of the plant.
The government appears frustrated a deal hasn’t already been made to secure the plant – both Chris Bowen and the industry minister, Tim Ayres, have said they “obviously would prefer that these issues had been resolved with the Tomago smelter”.
Ayres, speaking to ABC AM radio this morning, says while Rio Tinto has been investing in underwriting wind and solar projects around other plants, like in Queensland, “that activity has not been happening in the same way around [Tomago]”.
He’s also asked about his predecessor Ed Husic’s comments to the ABC yesterday, accusing Rio of “corporate villainy”. Ayres takes a more measured tone.
My job here is to work in a careful and calculated way that is about the Australian national interest. We’ve done that work in a series of smelters around the country in a careful way in the public interest, locking in investment in places like Port Pirrie and Hobart … and Mount Isa.
Australians should be ‘alarmed’ if Labor negotiates with Greens on environment bill
I told you it would be environment-heavy didn’t I!
The shadow environment minister, Angie Bell, joined Sky News a moment ago and said the government should negotiate with the Coalition on the EPBC Act, but then said her party is a “long way” from reaching a deal with Labor.
Remember, Murray Watt said he would like a deal closed and the legislation passed through parliament by the end of the year (and there are just over two sitting weeks left in the year). Though it won’t be easy either way: the Greens also want to secure some major concessions from the government.
Bell says:
I think Australians should be alarmed at the thought that Labor would go to the Greens and do a deal on this, because our country would be much worse off. Let’s look at the wealth of our nation and where that wealth has come from. Let’s look at where the money goes from mining into the coffers of state governments, and how they then deliver on hospitals and schools around their nation and infrastructure … We are a long way from doing a deal with Labor on this.
Krishani Dhanji
Good morning, Krishani Dhanji here with you, thanks to Martin Farrer for getting us started.
It’s going to be a heavily environment-focused day – we’ll see minister Murray Watt at the National Press Club and he’ll be introducing the environment protection and biodiversity conservation (EPBC) bill in parliament today.
There’s also plenty of reaction around to the PM’s dinner with Apec leaders (including one Donald Trump) in South Korea overnight, as well as the inflation data released yesterday.
Stick with us!
Andrew Messenger
Downgrade of Queensland’s credit rating ‘inevitable’, treasurer says
Queensland’s treasurer, David Janetzki, has told parliament a downgrade of the state’s credit rating is “inevitable” due to poor budgetary performance.
Earlier this month, ratings agency S&P Global affirmed a negative outlook for Queensland’s state government, forecasting the state will owe a debt to revenue ratio of 150% by 2028, up from 100% in 2023, due to a historically large infrastructure investment partly as a result of the 2032 Olympics and Paralympic Games.
Janetzki blamed his predecessor, Cameron Dick, for a $5.38bn deficit, but said the budget had since improved and the state would now run a deficit of just $4.43bn.
Those opposite [the Labor opposition] squandered revenue rivers of gold with community safety, health and housing outcomes going backwards on their watch.
Mr Speaker, Labor’s fiscal vandalism has made a credit rating downgrade highly likely, even inevitable. Their debt, deficit and deception legacy will take time to fix this term and the next.
Anne Davies
Followed on from last post…
The NSW investment announcement follows some serious setbacks for major renewables projects in NSW in the last 12 months.
Equinor, the Norwegian state-owned conglomerate behind the proposed $10bn Novocastrian windfarm near Newcastle, announced in May it would withdraw from the project and in August formally pulled out leaving the project in doubt.
Plans to build a nearly 500 megawatt windfarm at Barneys Reef in central-western New South Wales have been also abandoned, with the project’s developer, RES, claiming that “changing economic and planning requirements” in the state have made it too challenging to proceed.
There has also been community revolts over windfarms in the south-west renewable energy zone around Goulburn, prompting the local Liberal member, Wendy Tuckerman, to resign from the opposition frontbench over what she said was a lack of consultation within her own party over renewables legislation.
Whether the IDA can reignite any of the failed renewables projects or translate interest into investment remains to be seen.
Minns said:
Forty-eight proposals worth $136bn shows exactly why we created the Investment Delivery Authority. This level of interest is really promising. It shows the IDA is something investors have been waiting for.
Our government is sending a clear message to global investors: if you bring your money to NSW, we’ll help you navigate our system.
NSW premier to trumpet success of investment authority
Anne Davies
The Minns Labor government is trumpeting its new Investment Delivery Authority as a success story in getting more investment to NSW, announcing it has has received 48 major proposals worth $136bn in the first round of expressions of interest.
The scheme, which is modelled on its Housing Delivery Authority, aims to provide a single point of entry for investors, and help navigating approvals, so projects can get started more quickly.
In the first round 22 projects relate to renewable energy and energy security – valued at $63bn, while 23 projects relate to data centres and technology – valued at $72bn.
To be eligible for the fast-track most projects must be valued at more than $1bn. However, the IDA is also helping with hotel projects over $200m. Three further applications – valued at $860m – were received.
The level of interest will be spruiked by the premier Chris Minns at the Sydney Investment Summit at the Opera House this morning.
No more big economic reforms this year, says Chalmers
Patrick Commins
Jim Chalmers says any further economic reforms will be delayed until the May budget, after he ruled out any new government policies in December’s mid-year fiscal update.
The treasurer told assembled business figures at the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s gala dinner in parliament house last night that “this year’s Myefo will not be a mini-budget with lots of new initiatives”.
The mid-year update will be precisely that – an opportunity to update forecasts and the fiscal position. The main game will be May.
Chalmers is coming off a bruising backdown on key aspects of his $3m super policy, which will, if and when it is legislated, raise taxes on the top 0.5% of savers.’
Sitting idle is definitely not part of Chalmers’ modus operandi, however, and he was keen to point out the many small steps in the right direction being taken since August’s economic reform roundtable.
The commonwealth has “just signed off on the first set of state and territory reforms” that will be rewarded with incentive money from the government’s $900m productivity fund.
They include the Northern Territory government promising “stop unnecessary objections to commercial developments” and the ACT looking at ways to remove barriers to prefabricated materials for use in home-building.
“There’s been so much progress already on the directions set by the roundtable, and we’ll bring even more of it together in our fifth budget,” Chalmers said.
The RBA was always looking for an excuse not to cut, writes Greg Jericho
Martin Farrer
It’s fair to say the Albanese government needs some good news on prices – especially energy prices – after yesterday’s inflation figures appeared to put paid to any prospect of a rate cut by the RBA next week.
Our economics columnist, Greg Jericho, has been looking at the numbers and agrees with the consensus among forecasters that there’ll be no rate cut.
However, he does find some reason for optimism on prices because the headline figure has been strongly affected by the end of household energy bill subsidies, and also because underlying increases in the cost of goods and services are not terrifyingly high.
Read his full piece here:
Bowen predicts lower electricity prices as wholesale costs fall
Luca Ittimani
Chris Bowen has predicted lower electricity prices for consumers after wholesale electricity prices from July to September fell nearly 40% from the previous quarter.
Rising renewable energy output slashed costs and sent records tumbling, according to data released today from the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo). Responding to the report, Bowen said:
The drop in wholesale price is good news – and should flow through to retail energy prices in the near term.
Queensland had the lowest average spot price at $72/MWh after prices fell to zero or lower more than a quarter of the time, which was a state record, Aemo’s quarterly energy dynamics report read.
Record high wind power output, along with rising rooftop and grid-scale solar and a dip in coal-fired power output, saw renewables contribute 42.7% of the fuel mix, which was a September quarter record.
Renewables made up 77.2% of total energy generation across the national market for half an hour on 22 September, an all-time high, according to Aemo.
Underlying energy demand also hit a September quarter record, thanks to heating in the cold winter months, rising data centre consumption and increasing replacement of home appliances and vehicles with electric alternatives.
Albanese dines with Trump in South Korea
More now on Anthony Albanese and Donald Trump’s dinner on the Apec sidelines in Gyeongju last night.
The US president told reporters that the pair “had a great meeting a week ago”, the ABC reports, referring to their Washington meeting.
Trump continued:
You’ve done a fantastic job and we’re working together on rare earths, but we’re working on a lot of things together, and it’s all working out very well.
The main event of the summit was Trump negotiating a trade deal with South Korea, but it was also a chance for Albanese to continue the diplomatic whirlwind of recent weeks that has seen him travel to the US (twice), UK, UAE, Malaysia and now South Korea.
I’m working with leaders from across the globe to get things done for Australia.
Here at APEC we have a seat at the table – and we use it to back Australian jobs, Australian businesses and to create new opportunities for our exporters and investors.
Because what happens in the… pic.twitter.com/a6mSReiPoE
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) October 29, 2025
Writing on X, Albanese said:
I’m working with leaders from across the globe to get things done for Australia.
Here at APEC we have a seat at the table – and we use it to back Australian jobs, Australian businesses and to create new opportunities for our exporters and investors.
Because what happens in the world matters to Australia. Thank you for the warm welcome to South Korea, President Lee Jae Myung.
Welcome
Martin Farrer
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Krishani Dhanji with the main action.
After waiting what seemed like a long time to meet Donald Trump, Anthony Albanese has done so twice in the space of 10 days as he followed up his trip to Washington last week by sitting next to the US president at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit dinner in Gyeongju, South Korea, last night.
Yesterday’s inflation figures came as a blow to the federal government’s efforts to rebalance the economy but today the energy minister, Chris Bowen, is trying to tell a more upbeat story as he promises that households will see lower electricity prices in the “near term”. It follows a steep fall in wholesale electricity prices in the quarter to September, helped by more renewable power coming into the system.
More soon.
