Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has denied that he is feuding with Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, amid reports the PM intervened to scupper Plibersek’s deal with the Greens to establish an environment watchdog.
Speaking to ABC NewsRadio, Albanese denied that he quashed the deal as a favour to WA Premier Roger Cook, amid reports it could aggravate WA voters in the resources sector.
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“No, we simply didn’t have an agreement,” Albanese said.
“What I made clear at the beginning of my election, and certainly made very explicit at the beginning of last week, was that we wouldn’t be just agreeing to any old amendments in order to get legislation through.”
Asked again if the deal was ditched because of WA electoral concerns, the PM said it “wasn’t about politics”.
“We want to support industry to be able to operate effectively, but also to operate in a sustainable way, and so that’s our focus. We didn’t have that agreement. So it was put aside, along with a range of other bills where we couldn’t get agreement across the parliament. I made that very clear.”
Asked if he would “categorically deny” he was feuding with Plibersek over the abandoned deal, Albanese replied: “Absolutely”.
“It’s extraordinary that the media want to concentrate on what didn’t happen as opposed to what did happen. What happened was 45 pieces of legislation, including 11 across the Treasury, [passed].”