Parliament doesn’t sit today – the last sitting will begin tomorrow when the budget is handed down – but that doesn’t mean that there is no politics.

This week, Labor is attempting to ram through laws which will further weaken Australia’s environmental laws. It is under the guise of protecting the foreign-owned salmon industry in Tasmania, by essentially creating carve outs where it wouldn’t have existing environmental laws apply to it.

But it looks like the government wants to go even further and cut out the ability for third party civil society groups – like the Australia Institute and Environmental Defenders Office – from being able to assist community groups in their challenges of nature-destroying projects. The legislation the government wants to pass this week – with the Coalition – would mean third party civil society groups could not provide research or expert opinion to the groups, leaving them at the mercy of fighting challenges against multi-million dollar consultants hired by industry.

“Weakening environmental laws doesn’t help the Australian community or the Australian economy. It simply boosts the profits of salmon corporations, coal companies and other corporate interests,” said Rod Campbell, Research Director of The Australia Institute.

“Any change that makes it harder for community groups to use Australia’s environment laws is, by definition, anti-democratic.”

So keep an eye on that this week.

The Greens senator Nick McKim will hold a press conference on the issue later today.