Environmentalists fear they are being shut out of the economic debate after peak nature groups were overlooked for invites to Jim Chalmers’ reform roundtable.
The current list of 24 invitees to next month’s summit features only one representative from the environment movement: former Treasury secretary Ken Henry, in his capacity as chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation.
In contrast, Australia’s four peak business groups – the Business Council of Australia, Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Australian Industry Group and Council of Small Business Organisations of Australia – will each be represented as Chalmers attempts to build a broad consensus on economic reforms to lift living standards.
An invite has also been extended to Ben Wyatt, the former Western Australian treasurer who now sits on the boards of gas giant Woodside and miner Rio Tinto.
Basha Stasak, a nature program manager at the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), said the views of green groups were critical to the debate given the link between environmental protection and economic prosperity.
“Over quite a long time now, we’ve seen nature as something that we can exploit and extract from, and [have] not considered the cumulative impacts of that, and not considered the importance of protecting nature to maintain a prosperous economy,” Stasak said.
“We will not have that perspective in this [roundtable] debate. We will not have a strong perspective about why protecting nature is so essential for our economic prosperity.”
Henry this week drew a direct link between nature and the economy, casting a long-awaited fix to federal environment protection laws as the “most important” reform the Albanese government could pursue to lift stagnant productivity growth.
Stasak said there would be a “lot of pressure” on Henry and independent MP Allegra Spender, another nature advocate invited, to use their presence at the forum to speak up for environmentalists.
Guardian Australia understands Henry secured an invitation to the summit because of his expertise in tax reform, as well as his environmental advocacy.
On Friday, Chalmers announced another 13 invitees to the three-day event in Canberra, including Henry, Spender and Wyatt.
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The Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief executive, Matt Comyn, the NSW treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, the Tech Council of Australia boss, Scott Farquhar, the ACCC chair, Gina Cass-Gottlieb, and the respective heads of the departments of prime minister and cabinet and Treasury, Steven Kennedy and Jenny Wilkinson, were also among the latest batch of invitees.
More invitations will be issued as the summit’s agenda is finalised, Chalmers said, while noting that “we can’t invite representatives from every industry or organisation”.
In a statement to Guardian Australia, Watt did not directly address the green groups’ omission from the roundtable but said the forum was a “fantastic chance to achieve important reform” – including to the environmental approvals process.
Watt said he spoke with the ACF, WWF-Australia and Greenpeace as recently as Friday afternoon as part of his planned rewrite of federal nature laws.
“I look forward to more productive discussions in the future as we prepare to pass this important legislation,” he said.
The Greens assistant climate and energy spokesperson, Steph Hodgins-May, said the decision to invite a Woodside board member – Wyatt – showed the depths of “Labor’s toxic ties to the gas industry”.
Wyatt was appointed to the Woodside board less than six months after quitting WA parliament in March 2021.
In May, the gas giant was granted provisional approval to operate its North West shelf gas processing plant until 2070, subject to strict conditions.
The federal government is still awaiting Woodside’s response to the draft decision, which was originally due 10 days after the 28 May ruling.
Guardian Australia sought an explanation from the offices of Chalmers and Watt for Wyatt’s invitation but did not receive a response.
The roundtable will be held on 19-21 August.
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