Company directors are urging a swift passage of the Albanese government’s overhaul of Australia’s broken environment laws this week, as new research shows the red tape burden on business has hit $160 billion a year.

That figure has soared from $65 billion in 2013 and coincides with a 125 per cent increase in the number of laws, a tripling of pages in those laws and a more than doubling in the amount of time boards are spending on red tape.