A new federal environmental protection agency and a data centre will be set up to oversee compliance and enforcement of ecological breaches by big businesses as part of sweeping changes to environmental regulation in Australia.
As part of its Nature Positive Bill, the creation of Environment Protection Australia (EPA) was announced on April 15 by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.
She said the agency would oversee environmental enforcement of breaches related to development, animal trafficking, sea dumping, and recycling. It will also have the scope to issue stop-work notices and audit businesses for compliance during developments.
The maximum fines for serious breaches of federal law have been increased to $780 million (US$500 million) or a jail term of seven years.
Currently, each state and territory has its own EPAs, with responsibilities for regulating industries, monitoring environmental quality, and enforcing environmental laws and regulations. The new agency will initially operate within the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water.
After an independent review by Professor Graeme Samuel AC was ordered in 2021, the new EPA was borne out of suggested reforms to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 aimed at reducing political interference at the state level.
The review’s 38 key findings recommend the creation of National Environmental Standards to “ensure a robust and consistent approach to compliance and enforcement of decisions under the EPBC Act or accredited arrangements.”
Other recommendations were that state governments should “shift their focus from individual project approvals to a focus on clear outcomes, integrated into national and regional plans for protecting and restoring the environment and plans for sustainable development.”
The chief of the EPA will be a statutory appointment to prevent state governments from greasing the wheels on domestic projects, and the agency will be furnished with a $100 million allocation to speed up the approval process for projects concentrated on renewable energy and mineral excavation.
New Data Agency
In conjunction with the EPA, Ms. Plibersek also announced the Environment Information Australia (EIA), an online database, that will provide real-time environmental data to the government and businesses to enable faster decision-making and expedite project development.It will also release State of the Environment reports every two years, as opposed to the current five.
The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has been advocating for the creation of EIA said it was cautious about potential “unintended consequences” stemming from more bureaucracy.
Speaking with Argus Media, the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CMEWA) chief executive Rebecca Tomkinson said while the changes were welcomed, there were some concerns over agency overreach.
“We continue to hold reservations about the proposed decision-making model and will continue to advocate for a model that balances ecologically sustainable development considerations and includes the [environment] minister as the decision maker, ” Ms. Tomkinson said.
“Australia has one of the most comprehensive environmental approvals processes in the world and the MCA has been clear about the significant risks of duplicative, complex and uncertain approvals processes pose to the minerals sector, the broader economy, and the environment if we do not get this right.”
Environmental Groups Not Happy
Despite the $100 million injection which focuses on renewables, and Ms. Plibersek’s assurances that the government had been stepping up its efforts to protect Australia’s flora, fauna, and important landscapes, environmental groups say they are frustrated by a lack of progress.Changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act were expected after recommendations made by the Samuel review. But Dave Copeman, director of the Queensland Conservation Council, said the government had created the federal EPA “without all the tools it needs to protect nature.”
Environment Tasmania’s boss, James Overington, said the creation of the new EPA would change nothing.
“We are struggling to see how there will be any reliable benefits to nature,” he said.
The second stage of the government’s Nature Positive Plan will be introduced over the next few weeks, but the Coalition’s environment spokesperson Joo Duniam painted the measures as “a new bureaucracy with no new laws to administer.”
“After two years of selective and secretive consultation, we are no closer to knowing anything about these laws, which [is] harming investor confidence in our country for new job-creating projects and also creating uncertainty for the community at large when it comes to environmental protection measures,” Mr Duniam said.
Support from the Greens is imperative for the bill to pass, but their environment spokesperson Sarah Hanson-Young said the bill’s measures did nothing for the environment, and “caved into the mining industry and the loggers and the big polluters ... We are not going to back any moves that further weaken Australia’s environment laws.”
