To Sydney, where Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek was at Taronga Zoo this morning to talk about $24 million in funding grants for threatened species.

The program will deliver 61 Saving Native Species grants of up to $500,000 each for projects trying to save species such as the southern corroboree frog in Kosciuszko National Park and the chuditch or western quoll in South Australia. The projects include captive breeding, cracking down on invasive animals, and restoring and enhancing habitats.

Plibersek said reform to the decades-old Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act was also critical to giving threatened species the best chance of survival. This is the federal environmental law that is meant to give the environment minister the ability to refuse projects in order to protect nationally significant landscapes, ecosystems and species

“The environmental laws that we’re working off at the moment are more than 20 years old, and they don’t work for nature,” Plibersek said.

“And they don’t work for business – our environmental law reform will see faster, clearer decisions for business and stronger protection for nature.”

Ambitious law reform to end extinctions and the establishment of a national environment protection agency was an election promise of the Albanese government.

Environmental groups have been disappointed that Plibersek will not achieve an omnibus bill to sharpen environmental law this term of parliament, instead watering down elements and slicing and dicing it into several tranches of legislation.

When asked if she was disappointed by the progress of the reform, Plibersek said she was “really pleased” with how it was going.

She said the first tranche at the end of last year set up the nature repair market and expanded the water trigger to make sure new gas projects would be assessed on their impact on water, while the second tranche, to be introduced soon, would set up the EPA and also a body called Environment Information Australia to provide better data and insights.