Party also want regulator with powers to tackle climate change, air pollution, invasive species, water resources, land-clearing and vulnerable habitats

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The Greens will push for two new environmental agencies, including a regulator with wide-ranging powers to tackle climate change and land-clearing, adding pressure to Labor to provide detail to its own policy pledge.

In the new policy the Greens promise laws to expand federal oversight of environmental issues, including the creation of an environment commission to develop protection plans and an environmental protection agency with “real powers” of enforcement.

The scope of the new laws would include land-clearing, air pollution, greenhouse gases, invasive species, climate refugees, water resources and vulnerable habitats.

The laws will also provide open standing for people and communities to challenge environmentally damaging decisions in court, with costs waived in public interest cases.

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At its national conference in December, Labor promised a new Australian environment act and a commonwealth environmental protection agency, after a grassroots push from the Labor Environment Action Network (Lean).

The Greens policy delivers on demands made by Lean for two separate agencies, a science-based EPA to oversee development decisions and a national environment commission to develop legally binding plans and standards for protection.

Despite the addition to Labor’s platform, the shadow environment minister, Tony Burke, has so far declined to say if its design for the new laws and EPA will be released before the upcoming federal election.

The Greens’ environment spokeswoman, Sarah Hanson-Young, said the environment had been “ignored by successive governments” and it was time to give it the “protection and value it deserves”.

“We are seeing mass species extinction, habitat loss and the degradation of our national landscape and waterways,” she said. “Our environmental protection authority will be a cop-on-the-beat, enforcing real consequences for corporations that put communities and our environment at risk.

“An independent environment commission will tell us where money should be spent, how much we need and whether it’s working.”

Hanson-Young said the new agencies were justified by environmental exploitation seen in the unprecedented fish deaths in the Murray-Darling, the world’s first climate related extinction in Australia and “threatened birds exported to dodgy collectors”.

“With a Labor government the most likely outcome of the next election, it is vital we have a strong Greens team in the Senate to make sure protecting the environment is prioritised both in law and funding,” she said. “Our care for the environment should be based on facts, not the whims of the government of the day.

“We need to get down to the business of restoring ecosystems, addressing climate breakdown and making sure we leave a thriving planet.”

Environmental activists have taken aim at commitments given by Burke to Labor’s national conference, accusing him of going missing since his speech.

On Thursday, Burke told Guardian Australia Labor’s commitment to deliver an EPA and new environment laws in its first term if elected would not be easy and would require detailed consultation and departmental advice.

“If we win, I will progress this as quickly as possible,” he said. “It would be unrealistic to presume this would be done this current calendar year.”

Burke had earlier resisted the push for as significant an overhaul of environment law.

The Greens have so far sent mixed signals about how they will handle environmental issues with Labor in government. The federal leader, Richard Di Natale, has at various times suggested the Greens should support Labor’s climate change policies or muscle up to Labor to demand bigger improvements.

The Greens’ proposal to expand standing – and waive costs – for environmental court cases is likely to enrage Coalition conservatives. The Abbott and Turnbull governments unsuccessfully attempted to remove the right of most environmental organisations to challenge developments under federal laws unless they could show they were “directly affected”.