The rewriting of Australia’s nature laws come as a relief, yet I can’t help feel a sense of foreboding

Igot a text from a biodiversity advocate around midday on Thursday asking me: are you glad, or sad?

I wasn’t sure how to reply.

The Australian parliament is amending the country’s environment laws . Thanks to negotiating by the Greens, the amended laws will not enable the fast-tracking of coal and gas mining, which the government had proposed. Decisions about coal and gas mines that harm water resources will be retained by the commonwealth and not given over wholly to state governments as the government had proposed. That is an enormous relief.

And yet, I am filled with foreboding. What do Murray Watt and climate activists have in common? | Fiona Katauskas Read more

The bill introduced into parliament only a few weeks ago proposed to take the country backwards in environmental pr