Labor must protect environment while rewriting laws ‘written to facilitate development’, Larissa Waters says | Larissa Waters

Greens leader Larissa Waters warns Labor’s rewrite of national environmental laws will not be credible if the government uses its planned 18-month timeline to continue to approve new coal and gas projects or allow continued habitat destruction.

Labor’s proposal to create a federal environment protection agency collapsed in the final months of the last parliament. A deal with the Greens was being negotiated by the then environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, but Anthony Albanese pushed the changes off the agenda, fearing an electoral backlash in Western Australia.

The newly appointed minister, Murray Watt, says Labor’s 3 May victory gives the government a “very clear mandate” to pass the so-called nature positive laws, which he says should be finalised and passed by parliament within 18 months.

That progress will require support from the Greens, which hold the sole balance of power in the Senate.

But Waters said Labor needed to do a “proper job” in redesigning the Howard-era rules and to ensure they were not pushed down the political agenda ahead of the next election.

“They were always written to facilitate development and not to protect the environment. I say that in all honesty,” Waters said. “What they are now very clearly weak on is meeting the challenges that we’re facing.

“They don’t have any reference to climate in them. Now that’s just ridiculous, to have environmental laws that don’t require explicit consideration of the climate.”

Waters called for Labor to stop approvals for new mines, describing the post-election extension of Woodside’s huge North West Shelf development out to 2070 as “a massive, dirty gas bomb”.

“They do need a drastic rewrite. With the 18-month delay that the minister has now said, I take two messages out of that.

“Because I’m an optimist … maybe they can now take the time to do a proper job.

“But the other message I take is that this is not a priority for them. And I’m also worried that in that 18-month delay, that so much destruction will just continue. Things will just get ticked off while they’re reviewing the laws – how convenient – and it’s a smokescreen to just continue on business as usual.”

The Queensland senator, who replaced former Greens leader Adam Bandt, made the comments in an interview for Guardian Australia’s Australian Politics podcast, released on Friday.

The National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) has been lobbying the Greens on Labor’s plans to make some superannuation tax concessions less generous for account holders with balances above $3m.

The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says the government is pressing on with the delayed changes and is expected to negotiate with Greens’ treasury spokesperson, Nick McKim.

The NFF chief executive, Troy Williams, recently wrote to Waters warning the proposal risks serious unintended consequences for family farming businesses, which often rely on superannuation for intergenerational succession planning.

“We would plead with you to use upcoming negotiations in the Senate to push for sensible changes to this tax to mitigate the unintended consequences for family-owned farms,” Williams said in a letter provided to Guardian Australia.

“This could include grandfathering existing arrangements, excluding agricultural land from valuations, taxing gains on realisation, and of course indexation.”

The Greens have promised constructive negotiations and expressed concern retirement savings accounts are being used as vehicles for wealth accumulation.

Waters told Guardian Australia the party would consider Labor’s final proposal carefully.

“We will support tax changes that make the tax system fairer and I will be having those discussions with Mr Chalmers as the weeks roll on,” she said.

“I think we’ll keep those discussions private.”