{"id":36233,"date":"2025-11-27T10:59:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=36233"},"modified":"2025-11-27T10:59:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T23:59:16","slug":"albanese-government-to-pass-historic-environmental-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/11\/27\/albanese-government-to-pass-historic-environmental-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"Albanese Government to pass historic environmental reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Albanese Government\u2019s landmark environmental law reforms will pass the Parliament this week, heralding a new era for the environment and productivity in Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More than five years after Professor Graeme Samuel handed down his independent review into the nation\u2019s 25-year-old environmental laws, the Government\u2019s&nbsp;<em>Environment Protection Reform Bill&nbsp;<\/em>will be passed with the support of the Greens in the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bill will amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, providing a balanced set of reforms that not only protect the environment for future generations but also deliver for business and the community by helping speed up decision-making for projects in key areas of national priority like housing, renewable energy and critical minerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Key environmental measures in the Government\u2019s amended Bill:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>For the first time, Australia will have a\u00a0<strong>National Environment Protection Agency (EPA)<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 a strong, independent regulator with a clear focus on ensuring better compliance with and stronger enforcement of Australia\u2019s new environmental laws.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In another first, Australia will have<strong>\u00a0National Environmental Standards<\/strong>, to ensure clear, strong guidelines to protect the environment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Higher penalties<\/strong>\u00a0for the most significant breaches of environmental law, as well as environment protection orders for use in urgent circumstances to prevent and respond to major contraventions of the law.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Removing and sunsetting the exemption from the EPBC Act for high-risk\u00a0<strong>land clearing and regional forest agreements<\/strong>, so that they comply with the same rules and standards as other industries.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Requiring proponents of large emitting projects to\u00a0<strong>disclose their greenhouse gas emissions<\/strong>\u00a0and their emission reduction plans.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Maintaining federal approval of\u00a0<strong>\u201cwater trigger\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0coal and gas projects.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Key measures to speed up decision-making for business and the community:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A\u00a0new\u00a0<strong>Streamlined Assessment Pathway<\/strong>, to significantly reduce the timeframe for proponents who provide sufficient information upfront, providing incentive to meet the standards upfront. This will deliver faster decisions, saving businesses time and money.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>New and improved\u00a0<strong>bilateral agreements<\/strong>\u00a0with states to remove duplication for the assessment and approval of projects.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Regional planning<\/strong>, to deliver \u2018go\u2019 and \u2018no go\u2019 zones, delivering greater certainty to business, and future planning at a landscape scale, rather than project-by-project assessment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Clarifying definitions of \u201cunacceptable impacts\u201d and \u201cnet gain\u201d for the environment and restraining the operation of Environmental Protection Orders.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEveryone agrees that the laws as they stand are broken and need to be reformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cGetting these laws passed is vital to protect our environment and to boost productivity in our economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese reforms will help us meet our national priorities of building more homes, rolling out more renewables and accessing more critical minerals. They are also crucial to our Future Made in Australia agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Minister for the Environment and Water Murray Watt<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis is a landmark day for the environment in our country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThese reforms will deliver tangible benefits for the environment and protect what is precious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBut these reforms will also be a power surge of productivity for our economy, cutting approval times for key projects and injecting up to $7 billion into the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Albanese Government\u2019s landmark environmental law reforms will pass the Parliament this week, heralding a new era for the environment and productivity in Australia. More than five years after Professor Graeme Samuel handed down his independent review into the nation\u2019s 25-year-old environmental laws, the Government\u2019s&nbsp;Environment Protection Reform Bill&nbsp;will be passed with the support of the &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/11\/27\/albanese-government-to-pass-historic-environmental-reforms\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Albanese Government to pass historic environmental reforms&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36234,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36233\/revisions\/36234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}