New Environment Laws a Win for Both Conservation and Industry

The new bill fixes this "crucial flaw" by protecting threatened species across the whole continent. The ACF would have preferred to throw out this and other major Improvements in the bill and return to years more talking. Talk keeps Environmental lobbyists in work but doesn't do too much for the environment.

The new bill allows the Commonwealth to "accredit" State environmental approvals. The ACF and others claim this would see the Franklin dammed, the Daintree logged and Fraser Island mined. That's nonsense.

The bill allows State decisions to be accredited only when a management plan is agreed to with the Commonwealth, and either House can disallow the management plan. This reflects an appropriate balance that requires Commonwealth agreement on the "rules" to be applied but respects the States' role in implementing on-ground management.

And there is increased protection for World Heritage areas such as Fraser Island, the Daintree and the Tasmanian wilderness. The existing world heritage Legislation has applied to only five activities in 16 years.

In contrast, the EPBC Bill will ensure that all activities likely to have a significant impact on world heritage properties are subject to assessment and approval. Maximum penalties for non-compliance are increased from zero to $5.5 million.

Along with increased environmental protection, the Bill delivers major benefits to industry through less duplication of effort, the up-front certainty of the approvals process, and the guarantee of a specific time-frame for decisions by the Commonwealth.

Overall, the proper balance has been struck between Commonwealth Responsibility to protect the environment and the need to provide industry with scope to responsibly grow the economy and create jobs.