$128m federal plan to slash green tape
Queensland is likely to be a big winner under a new $128 million plan designed to give business more certainly about what can be developed in particular environments.
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In a $128 million bid to slash green tape the Morrison Government will announce plans on Tuesday to develop 10 regional environmental protection plans to give more certainty to business about what can be developed where.
Places like the Bowen Basin, Mackay and South East Queensland are expected to be included in the 10 plans.
Rather than project-by-project assessments, the regional plans are expected to outline what types of approvals or protections would be in place for particular areas broadly.
It would include protected areas of environmental significance, streamlined assessments and management of the cumulative impacts of projects.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley said there would be $62 million invested in developing the regional plans, $37 million for streamlining approvals and $28 million to modernise environmental offsets policies and compliance.
“It represents another important step in delivering much needed environmental reform that reduces unnecessary delay and duplication, while strengthening safeguards,” Ms Ley said.
Resources Minister Keith Pitt said it will be crucial in streamlining approvals, particularly for the resources industry.
“This will boost investor confidence by identifying areas within a particular region where development activities may be undertaken while ensuring that strong environmental protections are maintained,” Mr Pitt said.
The money for streamlining approvals will include $27 million to improve the timeliness of assessment determinations. Ms Ley said the number of applications hitting assessment check points on time in the past three years had risen to 96 per cent.
Just two years ago Labor analysis of an audit office review into approval times showed just five per cent of decisions under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act were made on time.
Tuesday’s funding announcement is in addition to a recent $47 million expansion of the Digital Environmental Assessment Program, which is intended to create a consistent set of data to allow applications to be decided more quickly and with more transparency.
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