Architect of Environmental Review Condemns Coalition's Rejection of Own Commissioned Report
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Graeme Samuel, the former head of the competition regulator who wrote Australia’s comprehensive 2020 environmental law review, was angry and frustrated on Thursday because the coalition was against reforms based on his suggestions.
He also said that Shadow Environment Minister Angie Bell asked for a briefing on the report that then-Environment Minister Sussan Ley commissioned five years ago but never got around to it.
Samuel said on ABC’s Afternoon Briefing that he has emails that show his review was “welcomed by every group in Australia” except the West Australian Chamber of Mines. He also accused politicians of playing games with laws that he says are important for future generations.
The extraordinary public rebuke from Samuel, a widely respected former chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, adds significant credibility pressure to the political debate over environmental reform. His comments directly challenge the coalition’s current stance, particularly given that Opposition Leader Ley commissioned the original review during her tenure as Environment Minister in the Morrison government.
“I try to be apolitical, but I’ve got to say to you, I’m getting frustrated and, frankly, a little angry about what’s going on in the political scene,” Samuel told host Patricia Karvelas. “This review took 12 months of real hard work, not on my part, but on the part of a whole series of people in the department.”
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Samuel emphasized that his review received broad stakeholder support across normally opposing interest groups. He described gathering approximately 25 different organizations representing business, farmers, academics and conservationists to negotiate compromises that would advance both environmental protection and economic efficiency.
“I sat them down. I said, right, this will be my report. It’ll be my view. But if you are going to stick with insisting on getting 100 percent of your aspirations, you’ll get nothing,” Samuel recounted. “If you’re happy to get about 80 percent of your aspirations, you’ll be a long way ahead of where we currently are.”
The review’s foundation rested on what Samuel termed “two Es” - efficiency and efficacy. Efficiency referred to streamlining processes for businesses and conservationists regarding environmental approvals. Efficacy addressed effectiveness in combating environmental degradation that occurred over the past two decades.
According to Samuel, Environment Minister Murray Watt has described the review as the “blueprint” for current Labor reforms. If accurately implemented, Samuel said, the changes would deliver “a massive increase in efficiency and a massive increase in efficacy and the effectiveness of the reforms.”
Most damaging to the coalition’s position, Samuel revealed that then-Minister Ley expressed support for the review’s approach. “Minister Lee, as it was back then and now leader of the opposition, knew exactly what was in the report and indicated to me that she embraced it,” Samuel said. “So I don’t understand why now, all of a sudden, the report is being rejected.”
Samuel confirmed keeping Ley informed throughout the review process, including during preparation of an interim report in June 2020. He characterized her response as positive: “The spirit of it was, yeah, look, thank you very much.”
The former regulator expressed particular disappointment about coalition members requesting then abandoning opportunities for direct briefings. When asked if he meant Shadow Environment Minister Bell, Samuel declined to name individuals but confirmed his disappointment with the process.
“It disappoints me that when they ask, would I be willing to provide a briefing, and I say, absolutely, right? And then I’ve got nothing further,” Samuel said. Host Karvelas characterized this as “quite shocking,” to which Samuel responded it was “bitterly disappointing because it says to me that there are potentially political games being played or posturing, which we should be putting aside.”
Samuel provided detailed explanation of how the proposed reforms would operate as a “self-help mechanism” for business. The system would feature detailed national environmental standards, guidelines interpreting those standards, a database of government rulings similar to Australian Taxation Office precedents, and regional plans describing requirements for large geographic areas.
The goal involves eliminating duplication by allowing states to conduct both assessments and approvals if they comply with national environmental standards, rather than requiring separate federal and state processes. “Instead of having to go to the Commonwealth and a relevant state for an approval, you go to one body and that would be the state,” Samuel explained.
Regarding coalition concerns about potential project refusals based on “unacceptable impact,” Samuel emphasized that stakeholders must await detailed national environmental standards before making judgments. The standards would provide comprehensive guidance on compliance, enforcement, engagement with First Nations people, and matters of national environmental significance.
“Business will be able to go along and be able to say, for this particular area where I’m proposing a development, what are the threatened species in that area? What’s the habitat I need to be concerned about? Is there a way I can avoid it?” Samuel said, describing the intended transparency of the system.
Samuel acknowledged not knowing sufficient detail about how reforms might affect the recently signed US critical minerals agreement but emphasized the general principle that clearer, more efficient processes would benefit all development proposals including mining projects.
“If we understand that what we’re saying to businesses, this is going to be so much easier for you to be able to assess before you put your application in,” Samuel said, defending the reform framework against business sector criticisms.
He noted possessing extensive email documentation of stakeholder support. “I’ve got emails from right across the board, sitting in my folder, which say, thank you, Graeme Samuel, for this report. We congratulate you on it. We embrace it. We think it’s... Now, this is right across the board. The only body that stood out was the West Australian Chamber of Mines,” he stated.
Regarding potential Greens opposition from the political left, Samuel suggested they would secure “a massive process forward in terms of protection of the environment, ceasing the degradation that we’ve seen over the past two and a half decades, and potentially restoration of the environment in terms of threatened species and the like.”
He described his original task from Minister Ley of examining environmental legislation totaling approximately 1,500 pages, with the vast bulk focused on process rather than outcomes. This complexity, Samuel argued, represents exactly the problem his reforms aimed to address by removing duplicative requirements while maintaining strong environmental protections.
Samuel made an emotional appeal based on intergenerational responsibility, invoking his grandchildren’s concerns about nature. “My grandchildren talk to me at the moment about nature. And they are intensely passionate about it,” he said. “I say to them, we’re doing our very best to preserve nature for you into the future.”
He emphasized the reforms’ importance extends beyond climate change to encompass broader environmental protection. “It’s for our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren and future generations that we bring these reforms into place,” Samuel stated.
The review’s fifth anniversary approaches on October 31, marking what Samuel characterized as five years of continued environmental degradation while politicians debate implementation of reforms designed to address these problems while improving economic efficiency.
Samuel drew a clear distinction between Ley’s approach five years ago versus current coalition positioning. “I have to say, Minister Lee, when she asked me to do the review, she didn’t play the political game,” he said, making his disappointment with current opposition tactics unmistakable.
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