Labor’s nature law overhaul contains wins – but we should watch for gremlins in the details | Adam Morton

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act changes are an improvement, but the rush to pass them was purely political

• Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here

We should start at the beginning in assessing the Labor-Greens deal to revamp Australia’s national environment law. And the beginning is that, ideally, you would not start from here.

Despite its name, the 1999 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act was designed under John Howard to allow developments to go ahead, usually with conditions attached that may limit the damage to nature.