Nature overhaul unlikely to stall key project approvals
Landmark environmental law reforms are to be signed off in parliament as industry groups study the impact of the changes.
The Greens have agreed to support Labour’s long-awaited rewrite of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act after tense negotiations and winning concessions amid a tight deadline.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the reforms marked “a new era for the environment and productivity”.
The bills passed the Senate on Thursday night and will be signed in the House of Representatives on Friday morning.
The reforms promise to better protect nature with environmental standards while speeding up project approvals, inspired by Graeme Samuel’s 2020 review of environmental laws.
While environmental groups have generally welcomed the deal, mining and industry groups still remain concerned about coal and gas projects being excluded from simplified assessment pathways, meaning the projects may not be fast-tracked.
University of Queensland law professor Justine Bell-James said the exemption for these projects was consistent with public and political sensitivity.
“These are controversial things that really need to be examined carefully,” he said.
“It is also incompatible with the government trying to take a strong stance on climate change.”
In a concession to the industry, the government has agreed to address concerns about two pro-nature provisions, including a definition of “unacceptable impact” that could disable projects because of the damage they could cause to ecosystems.
Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black said uncertainty remained in the definition and how it applied to projects.
“What this means in general terms is that there is the potential for projects that can now be evaluated to no longer be evaluated under this new system,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Prof Bell-James said the reforms were “not that different” to the current framework, so housing and other projects likely to get approval today would suddenly be rejected under the new regime.
“More than 99 percent of projects that interact with the law have been approved,” he said.
The professor said a key change was the introduction of bioregional planning, which would allow governments to assess environmental impacts at a landscape scale rather than on a project-by-project basis.
This allows regulators to identify ecologically important areas that need to be protected and map where development can occur with less environmental conflict.
Prof Bell-James described the mechanism as a convenient way to manage major developments.
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