Green laws will be regulatory nightmare, Labor says

There will be unnecessary jobs delays and a regulatory nightmare for the mining and infrastructure sectors under a proposed environmental overhaul, Labor has claimed.

There will be unnecessary jobs delays and a regulatory nightmare for the mining and infrastructure sectors under a proposed environmental overhaul, Labor has claimed.

Opposition environment spokeswoman Terri Butler on Tuesday took aim at “national environmental standards” being left out of proposed changes currently before Parliament, saying it would create uncertainty for businesses.

Green tape: environmental approval blow out by 510 per cent

Opposition environment spokeswoman Terri Butler says the proposed changes to the EPBC Act will create a ‘regulatory nightmare’.

But Environment Minister Sussan Ley said there will be legally binding standards, which will be legislated in a separate bill.

The recent Samuel review into the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act called for “legally enforceable National Environmental Standards should be the centrepiece of reform”.

Opposition environment spokeswoman Terri Butler said she feared the current proposal could see State Governments negotiate their own environmental standards.

“Without national environment standards recognised in law, each state jurisdiction could negotiate different standards into each agreement, which would also increase job and investment delays and become a regulatory nightmare,” she said.

She said the laws would “make it harder for Queensland to recover from COVID-19”.

But Ms Ley said Labor’s suggestions “are just wrong”.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley says no state will secure rights to make environmental approvals without signing up to national environmental standards.

“Labor has been briefed on our intention to legislate national standards following further work by Professor Samuel and was actually invited to support a separate bill for the standards framework,” she said.

She said the laws would create a “one-touch regime” for environmental approvals through State Governments, reducing green tape.

“No state is going to secure the right to make approvals without signing up to consistent, legally binding Commonwealth led national standards,” Ms Ley said.

The EPBC reforms have passed the House of Representatives, it could face a challenge in the fractious Senate.

Ms Ley said this meant it was one step closer to “single touch approvals”, meaning state governments would be responsible for the approvals without double up with the Commonwealth.

In his review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, former Australian Competition and Consumer Commission boss Graeme Samuel said the laws were “slow, complex to navigate and costly to business”.