The Federal Government has introduced legislation to set up Australia’s first national environment protection agency, Environment Protection Australia with strong new powers to protect nature.
The Nature Positive (Environment Protection Australia) Bill 2024 is central to the second stage of the Nature Positive Plan. It will enable the EPA to issue stop-work orders to prevent serious environmental damage and proactively audit businesses.
Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek said the new EPA would prioritise examining illegal land clearing and offset conditions.
A recent audit found one in seven developments could be breaching their offset conditions.
Penalties will increase, aligning maximum fines with serious financial offences. Courts can impose fines up to $780 million or prison sentences of up to seven years for serious intentional breaches of federal environment law.
The Nature Positive (Environment Information Australia) Bill 2024 has also been introduced.
It will establish the Environment Information Australia (EIA), providing transparent environmental data to the public and faster development decisions for businesses. The EIA will release State of the Environment reports every two years instead of five.
According to the Government, this bill provides a world-first legal definition and reporting measure for ‘nature positive’, aiming for nature to repair and regenerate rather than continue to decline.
The Government delivered stage one of the Nature Positive Plan last year. Stage three will involve consulting stakeholders on further updates to national environment laws, with a comprehensive exposure draft to be released for public comment before being introduced to Parliament.
“Through our Nature Positive Plan, we are doing more than ever to protect our natural world and fix more of what’s been damaged, while also supporting sensible development and good local jobs,” Plibersek said.
Plibersek added that the government had already established the world’s first nature repair market and expanded the water trigger to apply to all unconventional gas projects.
“We’re moving quickly to deliver Environment Protection Australia and Environment Information Australia,” she said.
“Combined with a significant investment in funding, this stage of the reforms will deliver stronger environment protection powers, faster environment approvals, more environment information and greater transparency.”
Plibersek noted that the government had consulted nearly 100 groups, held public webinars attended by 3000 people, and received around 2500 submissions.
“We will continue this work to get the laws right – for the environment and for business,” she said.
Clean Energy Council (CEC), peak body for the clean energy industry in Australia, welcomes the introduction of legislation to create the new EPA and EIA.
“Avoiding and minimising environmental impact is part of every industry’s responsibility and is taken seriously by the clean energy sector,” Nicholas Aberle, policy director of CEC said.
“It is critical that the new EPA is able to process applications in a timely manner. This will require a consistent process for handling applications as well clear and practical guidance on how different types of projects will be assessed.
“Equally important is that stop the clock provisions in circumstances where additional information is required must be subject to clear and narrow guardrails to prevent indefinite delays.
Aberle added that the ‘nature positive’ legal framework needs to integrate the significant benefit to biodiversity that comes from reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
She said climate change is one of the most serious threats to many of Australia’s threatened species and ecosystems and renewable energy is uniquely placed to mitigate that threat.
“Renewable energy projects inevitably have some local environmental impacts,” she said.
“But we must also consider the role renewable energy projects play in reducing climate change’s impact on biodiversity.
“It is unreasonable to consider the downside of a project without also considering its upside.”
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