Labor has struck a deal with the Greens to overhaul the federal environmental protection laws on the final sitting day of parliament for 2025.
The long-awaited rewrite of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act is being hailed by some as a landmark day for the environment in Australia. Conservation groups are cautiously optimistic that the long overdue changes promise some improvement on the 25 year old Act which had not been updated since it was installed by the Howard Government in 1999.
The creation of a national Environment Protection Agency should be a step forward, if it has the power to properly enforce breaches. The same applies to the creation of minimum national environment standards against which development applications will be assessed. There’s also a commitment to tighten loopholes that made most native forest logging and agricultural land clearing exempt under the previous version.
The Trillion Trees team recently attended a town hall forum with Environment Minister Murray Watt, hosted by Hasluck MP Tania Lawrence and Bullwinkel MP Trish Cook. It was a good opportunity to question the minister and gain an initial understanding of the complexities of developing this new legislation. As the details unfold in the coming months, we hope these laws will bring the net gain for nature that is promised.
Image credit: Georgina Barbour