New Zealand recently had a political shakeup and the conservative party got voted in after many years of a progressive government running the show, so this is hardly a surprise.

I wouldn't necessarily say that Australia is focusing more on the environment, we already don't do enough. And we're heading into an election year, so expect everything to stall as everything gets put on hold to be used as "election promises". And if the conservative coalition wins next year, all environmental policies will be in jeopardy, particularly rollout of renewables, as the conservatives are pushing hard to divert everything to nuclear over wind or solar.