{
  "id": 6593286,
  "title": "'Crossroads moment': Greens at odds over carbon scheme",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/10/crossroads-moment-greens-at-odds-over-carbon-scheme",
  "topic": null,
  "section": null,
  "published": "2026-09-10T04:45:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Discovered",
    "slug": "discovered",
    "url": "https://sconeadvocate.com.au/story/9347820/crossroads-moment-greens-at-odds-over-carbon-scheme"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A rift has emerged within the Greens party following their decision to not abandon Labor's contentious carbon accounting scheme, defying advice from party leaders and several senators. Tasmanian senators Nick McKim and Vanessa Bleyer, along with Western Australian senator Jordon Steele-John, defected to vote with the coalition to dismantle the government's Improved Native Forest Management Instrument (INFM) on Thursday. The majority of the party, including federal leader Larissa Waters, agreed to back the mechanism after thorough deliberation. The modifications will enable state governments to earn carbon credits by prohibiting logging of existing native forests and selling the carbon sequestration credits to industrial polluters. Waters stated that the Greens negotiated provisions to permanently fortify logging restrictions and restrict coal and gas plants from utilizing offsets to sidestep emission cuts. The Greens party room resolved to endorse the enhanced INFM due to the critical importance of forests and habitats in preventing species extinction and combating climate change. With the majority of Greens senators aligning with the government, the Nationals' motion to disallow the mechanism was rejected 34 to 27. Despite Labor's stringent no-crossing-the-floor policy and coalition frontbenchers barred from contradicting shadow cabinet stances, the three Greens defectors will face no consequences, according to a party spokesman. McKim and Bleyer, with Bleyer recently sworn in only on Monday, emphasized that this vote marked a \"crossroads moment\" for the party, noting they had not taken the decision lightly. The bill permits polluters to utilize carbon credits from the Great Koala National Park in New South Wales, which the state's premier, Chris Minns, warned would not be shielded from logging unless the laws were enacted. McKim and Bleyer disclosed they have dedicated years of their lives defending forests alongside activists and community groups and simply cannot accept that forests must be commodified to safeguard them. Both McKim and Bleyer denounced the move as a \"Labor shakedown,\" accusing Labor of unconditionally guaranteeing the Great Koala National Park's protection and subsequently threatening to drive koalas towards extinction to profit from their habitat. Former Greens leader Bob Brown and former leader Christine Milne both implored the party to vote against the bill, emphasizing that unlike Labor, environmentalists share the majority of Australians' desire to preserve forests and koalas for their intrinsic value. While some environmentalists and NSW Greens environment spokesperson Sue Higginson begrudgingly supported the new carbon credit system, WWF Australia's chief executive, Dermot O Gorman, commended the Greens, crossbench, and Australian and NSW government leaders for demonstrating courage and persistence to achieve this outcome.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}