Biodiversity offsets failed to protect habitat in NSW. Now federal Labor is about to make the same mistakes, critics warn

Offsets were meant to be a last resort for mitigating environmental damage from development projects, but rapidly became the default

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The federal government risks repeating grievous mistakes made in NSW with its proposals to change the way developers compensate for damage to the environment, scientists and legal experts have warned.

As the Coalition tears itself apart again over climate, Labor's plan to overhaul biodiversity offsets - and nature laws more broadly - has coasted under the radar with comparatively little scrutiny.