On 24 August the Australian Government announced its response to the 10 year review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The Government’s response included a large number of changes; the two major components are to:
- increase the use of environmental approvals to classes of actions, rather than project-by-project approvals. The Government will do this by encouraging ‘strategic’ approaches to assessment, including the use of regional environment plans, strategic assessments and the recognition of ecosystems of national significance; and
- amend assessment/approval processes to require early engagement between project proponents and the regulator, in order to reduce project delay and improve certainty around approval timeframes.
The Regulation Impact Statement was prepared by the Department of Sustainability, the Environment, Water, Population and Communities, and was assessed as adequate by the Office of Best Practice Regulation.
- Response to the review of the EPBC Act RIS – RTF version [
2.7MB] - Response to the review of the EPBC Act RIS – PDF version [
940MB]
The analysis in the RIS was supported by two pieces of cost-benefit analysis research:
2.4MB]