Mining giant Rio Tinto breaks ranks to back Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek nature protection reforms

One of the world's largest mining companies has broken ranks with much of the industry to support Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek's stalled push for a national environmental regulator. Rio Tinto late on Tuesday lent support to federal government legislation that would prioritise and reform 25-year-old environmental laws that better protect "Australia's national environmental and culturally significant places and species" while allowing for "more efficient and effective approvals". Labor and the Greens are still hashing out whether to include a "climate trigger" that would see proposed resources projects barred if they emit too much atmospheric pollution in the Environmental Protection Authority legislation. In particular, Rio Tinto called for creation of "strong national environmental standards that establish shared goals for nature, provide clear assessment criteria and underpin accreditation of related regulatory processes". "There is deep support for reform of Australia's environment laws from some of Australia's largest companies that are the biggest users of the environmental assessment and approval provisions of the existing national environment laws and there is genuine support for the creation of strong new national environmental standards," ACBF executive director Lyndon Schneiders said.