Deferring fast track approval process for offshore. Doesn’t...

Deferring fast track approval process for offshore. Doesn’t affect TBN approvals. Any hold ups in approving other new projects makes TBN more valuable.


Labor and the Greens have struck a grand bargain on fuel efficiency standards, offshore gas and the petroleum resource rent tax to pass all three bills in the Senate.

The government and Greens gagged debate in the lower house on fuel efficiency standards and then combined in the Senate to add all three bills to an hours motion requiring they be voted on Thursday.

The procedural moves outraged the Coalition, which opposes the fuel efficiency standards, independent MPs and senator David Pocock, who had wanted the PRRT bill strengthened to raise more revenue.

The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, said the deal proved the Greens are Labor’s “preferred negotiation partners” and the “resources industry has been abandoned” less than a week after Labor promised it “a fresh start” in its future gas strategy.

The offshore petroleum and greenhouse gas storage legislation amendmentis a workers safety bill containing a schedule that would allow the resources minister to override the environment minister when it comes to setting approvals rules including First Nations consultation for offshore gas projects.

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Under the Labor-Greens deal, the government will remove this schedule from the bill to pass the non-controversial elements but it is not abandoning its intention to legislate this reform.

In return, the Greens will help pass the petroleum resource rent tax and the fuel efficiency standards.

The Greens revealed the deal includes a commitment not to bring back the changes to the offshore gas approvals process until the third tranche of the government’s environmental law reform.