‘Water trigger’ passes to states

THE water trigger that protects underground reservoirs from coal seam gas production and coal mining will be weakened.

THE water trigger that protects underground reservoirs from coal-seam gas production and coalmining will be weakened under a transfer of federal government environmental decision-making powers to the states.

The changes were welcomed by business but slammed by conservation groups, which ­accused Environment Minister Greg Hunt of using the federal budget to “sneak through the biggest ever transfer of environmental powers”.

Under the terms of draft state agreements released yesterday, federal environment approvals for major projects in Queensland would be decided by the Department of State ­Development.

Environment groups said the amendments opened the way for councils to give federal environmental approvals for projects in World Heritage-listed areas.

The amendments give state governments control of the “water trigger’’ decisions along with all other matters under the EPBC Act.

When the “water trigger” legislation was introduced with bipartisan support by the ­Gillard government, decision-making powers over water specifically could not be ­delegated.

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott said the commonwealth government had achieved several important milestones in its plans to remove duplication between the commonwealth and the states on environmental approvals.

She said the water-trigger amendments were particularly welcome because there “isn’t, and never was, any policy rationale for excluding decisions relating to major coal or coal-seam gas projects from bilateral agreements’’.

Wilderness Society national campaign director Lyndon Schneiders said Mr Hunt was “fast becoming the worst performing environment minister in the past 30 years’’.

“He is moving to strip World Heritage listing from Tasmania’s ancient forests, has approved dumping on the Great Barrier Reef and is now trying to strip away rudimentary protections for groundwater which were fought for by Tony Windsor and local communities in the last term of parliament,’’ Mr Schneiders said.

An alliance of 40 environment groups including WWF-Australia, The Wilderness Society, Australian Conservation Foundation, Birdlife Australia and Humane Society International said the amendment bill amounted to a “chronic failure of government”.

“Local councils should not be deciding development applications which impact on the Great Barrier Reef, wetlands of global significance or other matters of environmental national significance,” WWF chief executive Dermot O’Gorman said.

Mr Hunt said release of the legislation and final draft state agreements was a major step forward for the proposed “one-stop shop” for environmental approvals. “This reform will simplify project approvals while still maintaining high environmental standards under Australia’s national environment law,” he said.