The teal independents in Federal Parliament, including Kate Chaney, have announced their intention to vote against the Albanese Government’s proposed overhaul of Australia’s environmental protection laws. The group – comprising Zali Steggall, Sophie Scamps, Kate Chaney, Nicolette Boele, Monique Ryan and Allegra Spender – argued that the nearly 1,500-page legislation fails to adequately safeguard Australia’s natural environment and must be significantly amended before they can support it.
Kate Chaney, the Independent MP for Curtin, voiced strong dissatisfaction with both the content and the legislative process. Speaking at Parliament House, Chaney stated: “My community really wants to see reform in this area. We need to do better at protecting nature and also making processes work faster for business. But when it comes to this package, the process sucks and the substance is questionable.” Her remarks reflect growing concerns that while environmental reform is overdue, the current proposal falls short in both ambition and clarity.
The crossbenchers have prepared a series of amendments aimed at strengthening the bill. These include changes to the design of the proposed biodiversity offsets fund, measures to block the environment minister from invoking a “national interest” clause to approve fossil fuel projects, and the addition of climate change as a core objective of the legislation. The current draft does require major polluting projects to disclose emissions as part of their application process but lacks a “climate trigger” that would allow emissions impacts to halt approvals—a key point of contention for the independents.
Nicolette Boele argued that the absence of serious climate measures undermines the entire reform effort. She linked climate inaction directly to biodiversity loss, stating: “The climate crisis was turbocharging Australia’s extinction crisis.” She questioned how any species or ecosystems—such as the glossy black cockatoos, tall forests, or coral reefs—could be protected without confronting their largest threats.
Dr Sophie Scamps criticised the legislation as being replete with loopholes, singling out the exemption for native forest logging as particularly egregious. She will propose an amendment to remove that exemption. “We’ve got one set of environment laws to protect our nature, and they have utterly failed us for the last 25 years,” Scamps said. “We now have 19 ecosystems on the brink of collapse, but the changes that the government has proposed do not guarantee that our nature will be better protected.”
The teal MPs are pushing for climate accountability and legislative mechanisms that would deliver genuine environmental improvements, rather than what they see as bureaucratic reshuffling. The government's approach appears to prioritise expedited approvals for development while failing to embed robust environmental standards or climate safeguards.
With a vote expected in the House of Representatives in the coming days, the crossbench opposition signals a difficult path ahead for Labor’s proposed legislation unless significant concessions are made. For Kate Chaney and her colleagues, environmental law reform is a priority—but not at the cost of effectiveness, integrity, or long-term outcomes for nature.