Environment watchdog defends ‘green tape’ protection of WA biodiversity

In a state where governments of all persuasions push resource projects relentlessly, Professor Matthew Tonts is the closest WA has to someone who can say no.

The Environmental Protection Authority he chairs is independent, but only recommends what conditions should be placed on a new mine or gas development to protect the environment.

It is advice the minister of environment only has to consider, not follow.

WA Environmental Protection Authority chairman Matthew Tonts.Credit: Peter de Kruijff

Tonts, who is three years into his five-year term, said he is enjoying the job that gives him a chance to make a real difference.

That difference comes from the environmental impact assessment process which, in what may be a surprise to many, is not just a long wait for out of touch bureaucrats to say no.

The geography professor said the back and forth between the watchdog and the project proponent can dramatically improve the environmental outcomes of a proposal.

What Tonts did not fully appreciate when he accepted the job was the spotlight he would be under, as protecting the state’s environment also makes him the gatekeeper to mining and oil and gas investments that totalled more than $27 billion last financial year.

“Even though I’ve sort of seen how other chairs have been in that position, I think living it is quite a different thing,” he said.

Tonts’ immediate predecessor Tom Hatton received something closer to a blowtorch than a spotlight in 2019 before he dumped a new carbon emissions policy one week after it was introduced.

The plan to recommend large new projects offset all their emissions did not survive a relentless industry and media barrage capped off by a phone call from then-premier Mark McGowan.

Premier Roger Cook took a slightly slower approach, announcing in December a legislative overhaul to “slash green tape” after a review that lasted less than seven weeks.

At the time Cook cryptically said, “while the EPA gives independent advice to government, it is not independent of government”.

Tonts, who was consulted by one of the review’s authors Paul Vogel, himself a former EPA chair, said many of the recommendations were similar to what the EPA had wanted to do, but it was thwarted by a lack of resources.

“The number one thing is we need people to be able to do that work,” he said

When Tonts joined the EPA in 2021, it had the most projects referred to it in six years, and more came in the following year.

“All of a sudden the workload went up, and we weren’t able to scale up the staff quickly enough,” he said.

More resources have been promised by the government and Tonts expects to feel the benefit within months.

Permissions for emissions

The government is looking at further adjustments to its environmental approvals regime, including whether the EPA is duplicating efforts of the federal government in reducing carbon pollution.

After the 2019 backdown, the EPA under Hatton responded with a policy to recommend that emissions from all large projects reduce in a roughly straight line to zero by 2050.

It is an approach Environment Minister Reece Whitby has signed off on for Chevron’s two giant gas export projects Gorgon and Wheatstone.

Tonts said the greenhouse gas policy was one of the things the EPA was most proud of.

He said there were still uncertainties about the federal government’s revamp of its safeguard mechanism, including emissions reductions requirements after 2030.

In November, the Cook government held an energy transition summit where a recurring theme was that mining minerals for electric vehicles and other projects that would help the world reduce greenhouse emissions should perhaps have an easier path to environmental approval.

“We must be mindful that we can’t trade off amazing biodiversity values necessarily for that agenda,” Tonts said.

The government is also looking at the number of opportunities for appeal and public comment in the environmental approval regime.

“One of the great things about the WA system is there are at least four points at which there is significant community engagement,” Tonts said.

The public can refer an issue to the EPA for consideration and comment on whether something should be assessed and then on the proponents detailed submission.

The final chance is after the EPA has published its recommendation that can be appealed by both the public and the proponent.

“The EPA should not hide from scrutiny,” Tonts said.

Only after the independent Office of the Appeals Convenor has published its report can the environment minister weigh up environmental and other issues, such as the economy, and decide what conditions to impose on a project.

Tonts accepts there has to be a balance between a rigorous process that includes the public and a reasonably timely outcome.

“When I hear ‘green tape’, it’s actually a mixture of a whole range of different things,” he said, including waiting for proponents to provide sufficiently detailed and robust surveys and scientific studies.

The government plans to legislate so it can direct the EPA to assess projects it deems significant to the state within a specified time frame.

Tonts hopes this will drive proponents to provide better quality information upfront.

“Meet a high bar at the outset and that leads to a more efficient assessment process,” he said.

Mining in the jarrah forest

Some of the most complex work for the EPA is assessing bauxite mining in the jarrah forest that extends from inland of Perth to Collie in the south.

South32, which owns the Worsley alumina refinery, lodged an 815-page environmental review document in mid-2022 that was accompanied by more than 60 appendices.

Alcoa is expected to lob something similar to the EPA shortly for an expansion of its mining areas.

In December, the EPA accepted a referral from the WA Forest Alliance to assess some of Alcoa’s existing mining areas.

Tonts said some other assessments in the Pilbara have been as involved, but they were not on the doorstep of the metropolitan area.

However, they all have one thing in common: “It’s water that drives everything”.

It was easy to look at “the green stuff on top” Tonts said, but often it was groundwater and surface water flows supporting much of an area’s biodiversity.

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