Coalition and Labor negotiate nature laws as Greens warn compromise would show it was ‘written for big business’

Environment minister Murray Watt says other parties must decide ‘whether they want to see us do a deal with the other side of politics’

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Senior Liberal MPs are optimistic a deal can be reached with Labor on a watered-down version of its new nature laws, allowing them to be passed in parliament’s final sitting week of the year.

The environment minister, Murray Watt, is open to a deal with the Coalition that would require a raft of concessions, including revising a new provision designed to block projects that cause an “unacceptable impact” on the environment.