Submissions due: Friday 5 June.

Consultation is open on the first tranche of draft Regulations which relate to key elements of reform of the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act) framework.

This is a key opportunity to raise the bar for how the EPBC Act will operate to help ensure reforms lead to improvements to environmental outcomes. The Regulations will address key elements of the EPBC reforms, including:

  1. What are the criteria that decision-makers will need to consider to have federal EPBC Act assessment and approval powers devolved to state and territory governments.
  2. When will greenhouse gas information be required to be disclosed by proponents under the EPBC Act.
  3. Will proponents be allowed to start impacting protected matter prior to even having their activity assessed or approved.
  4. Defining of net gain to provide a threshold for meeting the offset and net gain requirements
  5. What additional matters will protection statements be required to address

Three Consultation Papers and the Exposure Draft of the EPBC Regulations, available here, are open for consultation, providing proposed amendments to the EPBC Regulation, which sits under the EPBC Act and helps operationalise the Act’s provisions.

Sadly, the National Environmental Standards are proving to be at risk of not at all fulfilling the stated commitments of the federal government nor of Professor Sameul AC’s recommendations in how to improve the EPBC Act.

For this reason it is more integral than ever that attention is put on strengthening the Regulations to ensure that this reform process is not a backwards step for the environment.

Read our submission guide here and get your submission in by 5 June.