A former Greens leader has labelled Labor's sweeping environmental reforms a disgrace and urged an entire rewrite of the bill.

Veteran conservationist Bob Brown lashed the long-awaited rewrite of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act before a parliamentary committee examining the bill on Thursday.

"It's up to the government to take this legislation back and put it in the bin where it belongs," he said.

Labor hopes the overhaul of environmental laws will pass through the Senate before Christmas, despite the committee not due to hand down its final report on the changes until March.

There are just four sitting days left for the parliamentary year before the summer break.

The reforms aim to accelerate project approvals including housing, energy and critical mineral

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