Australia has a new environment minister in Murray Watt and a new federal Greens’ leader in Larissa Waters; they are both Queenslanders, lawyers, and senators. Is this good news for our environment?
Minister Watt has said he would ‘leave it to commentators’ to determine why he’d been placed in his new role, with Tanya Plibsersek having been moved sideways, into social services.
Previously looking after industrial relations, and before that the minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry, Watt is from the same left faction as Anthony Albanese, and proved himself a trustworthy lieutenant in the Senate during various battles over the last three years, notably during debates about the Voice, CFMEU administration and live sheep exports.
A lifelong Labor man, he’s also known as someone who can reach across the aisles when necessary. He’s being thrown in at the deep end this week, heading straight to WA to decide whether to approve a forty year extension of Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project, and then tasked with resuscitating the government’s Nature Positive Reforms, which will potentially shape Australia’s legal framework around conservation for decades.
It will be telling whether Minister Watt meets anyone in Western Australia apart from state government representatives and mining lobbyists, who are indistinguishable in most cases, apart from the quality of their suits.
Kick in the guts
The sainted Bob Brown has already declared Albo’s new minister for the environment and water a lost cause, describing Murray Watt’s appointment as ‘a kick in the guts for every nature-loving Australian.
‘It is Trumpian,’ he continued. ‘Watt is Albanese’s answer to Trump’s Lee Zeldin. This ministry is set to send young Australians into even greater despair… Watt backs native forest logging, salmon cage pollution, woodland clearance of two million hectares in five years and koala killing, as well as more global heating and coral bleaching.
‘The only good thing coming out of Watt’s appointment is that it will create many more jobs in environmental activism,’ he said.
Lawyer Lee Zeldin was appointed by Donald Trump to manage (destroy) the US Environmental Protection Agency. An opponent of the Clean Air Act, Zeldin has also supported fracking and blocked efforts to phase out harmful fishing gear.
Will mild-mannered Murray Watt reach such giddy depths? Only time will tell. At least he understands and accepts the science of climate change.
Politics with heart
In the green corner, new Greens’ leader Larissa Waters is unlikely to cut Watt any slack.
With a background in science and the law, Senator Waters has a history of putting herself on the line for what she believes in, whether that means showing up in the heart of the Tara gas wasteland and at Bentley during the fracking fight, working for the Environmental Defenders Office, marching to save the Great Barrier Reef or breastfeeding her baby on the floor of parliament.
Although not the bookies’ or pundits’ favourite, she was chosen quickly and unanimously by her fellow Greens, and immediately spoke to the press, saying she wanted to see politics with ‘heart’ again.
‘It’s about what people need and it’s about what the planet needs,’ she said, noting that she was happy to accept the labels of ‘environmental lawyer’ and ‘feminist’.
She called on Labor to be bold, and to work with the Greens, who hold balance of power in the Senate, having retained all eleven of their upper house seats.
‘The Labor Party have a choice,’ she said. ‘They can work with us and help people and protect nature, or they can choose to work with the Coalition. They’re going to need to pick because they don’t have the numbers in the Senate to pass the legislation that they want to work on…
‘We will be firm but constructive, because this isn’t about politicians.’
Senator Waters has re-affirmed the Greens’ stance on Gaza, First Nations justice, and violence against women, refusing to accept Labor’s painting of her party as obstructionists and tools of the Coalition.
On the social housing issue she said, ‘There are people now who are going to have somewhere to live because of those tough negotiations. I’m proud of that. No one can argue with $3.5 billion extra for social housing.’
Captured petrostate?
More than most in the parliament, Larissa Waters understands the local and international impacts of the climate crisis, and described the Albanese government last year as ‘plainly captured by the fossil fuel industry’.
Although she is seen as a more unifying figure than Adam Bandt, the Labor government will face an implacable opponent in Senator Waters if they continue to expand coal, gas and logging while also talking up net zero.
The Greens remain the only party that refuses to take donations from fossil interests, with Labor and the Coalition uniting to block Senator Waters’ ‘Banning Dirty Donations Bill’ twice so far. In her speech to the Australian Institute last year, Larissa Waters said, ‘removing the fossil fuel industry’s influence on politics and parliament is how we change the story and restore trust in government decisions’.
As a man who originally became prime minister on a platform of restoring integrity to Australian politics, Anthony Albanese could learn a lot from the new Greens leader.
Hopefully his door is open.
Originally from Canberra, David Lowe is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and photographer with particular interests in the environment and politics. He’s known for his campaigning work with Cloudcatcher Media.
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