Australia is set to get its first ever national regulator for environmental protection under the latest round of reforms which are designed to improve environmental outcomes throughout the nation.

Commonwealth Minister for Environment and Water Tanya Plibersek has unveiled the second stage of reforms which are set to take place under the Government’s Nature Positive Plan.

Key measures include:

• Creation of Australia’s first national Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with powers and responsibility to enforce federal laws relating to the environment
• Creation of a new body known as Environmental Information Australia (EIA) to provide reliable and up-to-date national environmental data.
• Investment of $100 million to speed up environmental approval decisions.
• Higher penalties for breaches of federal environmental law such as illegal land clearing, including maximum penalties for serious offences of up to $780 million in fines or up to 7 years’ imprisonment.

The latest measures represent the second stage of the rollout of the Commonwealth Government’s Nature Positive Plan which was released in 2022.

The plan comes after the final report of a landmark review of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act conducted by Professor Graham Samuel was released in October 2020.

That report found that the Act was deficient and was failing both business and the environment.

The first stage of reform under the Government’s plan established the world’s first Nature Repair Market and expanded the ‘water trigger’, so that all unconventional gas projects needed to be assessed for their impact upon water resources.

The latest second stage comes ahead of what is expected to be the main body of environmental protection and biodiversity conservation law reform.

Laws in respect of this latest stage are expected to be introduced into Parliament in coming weeks.

An exposure draft of the new laws will be released for public consultation prior their introduction into Parliament.

A key aspect of the reforms will centre around the creation of Australia’s first national Environmental Protection Agency.

The agency will be given powers and responsibility to enforce federal environmental laws across the nation.

It will be able to audit businesses for compliance with environmental approval conditions and will be able to issue stop work orders for anyone breaking the law.

Its chief will be an independent statutory appointment – similar to the Australian Federal Police Commissioner – to make sure that no government can interfere with the new agency’s enforcement work.

Meanwhile, the new EIA will provide more transparent information and data about the nation’s environment via a publicly available website.

This will help business to make federal environmental approvals smoother as it will avoid the need for scientific studies to be needlessly repeated.

To provide more up-to-date information about the state of Australia’s environment, the new agency will publish State of Environment reports every two years rather than every five years as has been the case until now.

The EIA will also publicly report on progress toward environmental goals such as protecting 30 percent of Australia’s land and seas by 2030.

This, the Government says, will deliver greater transparency and accountability in terms of Australia’s environmental performance against targets.

Finally, the reforms will allocate almost $100 million to speed up environmental approval decisions.

This investment will include:

• more support staff to assess project proposals
• more tailored support to help business to comply with environment law
• more funding for research into threatened species so that sensitive areas can be more easily avoided and that suitable projects can be more quickly approved based on robust, existing publicly available data; and
• more planning – working with state and territory governments – in seven priority regions to help business to understand where complying development can more easily occur and where the ‘no go’ areas are.

In a statement, Plibersek said that the latest initiatives will help to deliver stronger environmental protection along with better support for business.

“Our Government is doing more than ever to protect our country’s natural treasures, native plants and animals, so Australians can continue to enjoy our lifestyle in the great outdoors,” she said.

“We’re delivering stronger protections for the environment, including Australia’s first ever independent national Environment Protection Agency.

“We’re also working to support faster, clearer decisions for business. That greater certainty for business will help drive investment in nation-building projects.

The plan has been welcomed by business groups including building industry lobby groups but has been met with disappointment by environmental groups.

Col Dutton, National President of the Urban Development Institute of Australia, said that the latest moves will deliver greater transparency and accountability whilst helping to speak up approval timeframes on major projects.

In particular, Dutton welcomed the announcement regarding the national EPA.

“The decision promises more accountability and transparency under the new EPA with industry access to data and progress reports,” Dutton said.

“Critically, it assures industry that there will be faster environmental approvals on projects.

“For too long the EPBC Act has been a significant drag on new housing projects. It has undermined project viability due to inconsistent application, interpretation and governance, which adds substantially to the time and cost of new projects.

“This has led to an eroding of confidence in the environmental process.”

However, the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) has expressed frustration that the government has failed to deliver on what it says is the ‘full reform’ of national environment law.

ACF CEO Kelly O’Shanassy said welcomed the creation of the national EPA, stating that a strong and independent EPA will help to take the politics out of environmental law enforcement.

However, O’Shanassy said that the EPBC Act itself needs comprehensive reform.

In particular, she said that the environmental offsetting system needs a root and branch overhaul.

O’Shanassy also said that impacts upon climate change should be a key part of project development assessments.

“We are in the midst of an extinction crisis and our national nature law is in need of urgent, comprehensive reform,” O’Shanassy said.

“We call on the Albanese government to deliver the full package in this term of parliament.

“The announced crackdown on illegal land clearing and the establishment of an EPA are welcome and necessary but without comprehensive reform the EPA will be enforcing a flawed and ineffective law that still needs serious surgery.

“ACF welcomes the government’s announcement that it will set up an agency to enforce environment laws – something previous governments failed to do.

“A strong, independent EPA is essential to take the politics out of decisions that affect nature.

“The minister should not have powers to override the decision of an independent EPA.

“The latest global mass bleaching event hitting the Great Barrier Reef is a stark example of the damage climate change does to nature, so it is critical the reformed law requires governments to consider whether projects are bad for the climate as part of the assessment process.

“ACF calls for root-and-branch changes to the offsetting system, which at present allows unique ecological communities to be continually chipped away at until there is nothing left.

“It is more than three years since Professor Graeme Samuel delivered his thorough and scathing review of the national environment law to the Morrison government and nearly two years since the latest State of the Environment report laid bare the dire state of nature in Australia. The Albanese government came to office in May 2022 with a promise to reform this law.

“A total of 144 animals, plants and ecological communities were added to the threatened species list in 2023 – that’s nearly three species a week – and hundreds of thousands of hectares of precious habitat was destroyed.

“Every day and every decision matters for our wildlife. Further delays to nature law reform risk more extinction.”

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