Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek has vowed to accelerate approvals for renewables and housing projects while imposing a new water constraint on unconventional shale gas and forcing businesses to show how they are helping meet Australia’s 43 per cent emissions reduction target.

In the most wide-reaching overhaul of the nation’s habitat, flora and fauna protection laws in more than two decades, Ms Plibersek said the government would next year introduce legislation to establish an independent “tough cop on the beat” Environmental Protection Agency charged with policing businesses, landowners and developers.