'Environment crisis': Wilderness Society pursues parties over election commitments

Exclusive: Green group's intervention seen as a hurry up to Labor, which is yet to produce its final policy

An influential green group is seeking concrete commitments from the major parties and potential crossbenchers for an overhaul of environmental protection laws and the establishment of new independent regulatory agencies, before Australians cast their votes on 18 May.

Lyndon Schneiders, the national campaigns director of the Wilderness Society, wrote widely to politicians on Monday seeking agreement to an ambitious legislative and regulatory overhaul - but the hurry up is directed predominantly at Labor, which has offered an in-principle commitment but has not yet produced a final policy, and the people likely to form the crossbench in the next parliament.