The Hon Anthony Albanese MP
Prime Minister of Australia

Senator The Hon Murray Watt
Minister for the Environment and Water

The Albanese Government’s landmark environmental law reforms will pass the Parliament this week, heralding a new era for the environment and productivity in Australia.

More than five years after Professor Graeme Samuel handed down his independent review into the nation’s 25-year-old environmental laws, the Government’s Environment Protection Reform Bill will be passed with the support of the Greens in the Senate.

The Bill will amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, providing a balanced set of reforms that not only protect the environment for future generations but also deliver for business and the community by helping speed up decision-making for projects in key areas of national priority like housing, renewable energy and critical minerals.

Key environmental measures in the Government’s amended Bill: 

• For the first time, Australia will have a National Environment Protection Agency (EPA) – a strong, independent regulator with a clear focus on ensuring better compliance with and stronger enforcement of Australia’s new environmental laws.
• In another first, Australia will have National Environmental Standards, to ensure clear, strong guidelines to protect the environment.
• Higher penalties for the most significant breaches of environmental law, as well as environment protection orders for use in urgent circumstances to prevent and respond to major contraventions of the law.
• Removing and sunsetting the exemption from the EPBC Act for high-risk land clearing and regional forest agreements, so that they comply with the same rules and standards as other industries.
• Requiring proponents of large emitting projects to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and their emission reduction plans.
• Maintaining federal approval of “water trigger” coal and gas projects.

Key measures to speed up decision-making for business and the community: 

• A new Streamlined Assessment Pathway, to significantly reduce the timeframe for proponents who provide sufficient information upfront, providing incentive to meet the standards upfront. This will deliver faster decisions, saving businesses time and money.
• New and improved bilateral agreements with states to remove duplication for the assessment and approval of projects.
• Regional planning, to deliver ‘go’ and ‘no go’ zones, delivering greater certainty to business, and future planning at a landscape scale, rather than project-by-project assessment.
• Clarifying definitions of “unacceptable impacts” and “net gain” for the environment and restraining the operation of Environmental Protection Orders.