(AU) Federal Environment Law Review Calls For Independent Cop, But Morrison Government Rules It Out

ABC News - Michael Slezak

The review flagged legally enforceable "national standards" to stop the decline of Australia's natural environment.(Supplied: Paul Fahy)

Key Points The 124-page interim report comes 20 years after the laws were first implemented by the Howard government The report's author has called for a "strong, independent cop" on the environment beat The Federal Government has accepted some recommendations, but rejected the report's call for an independent regulator

A landmark review into Australia's national environment laws has called for a major overhaul, including establishing an "independent cop" to oversee them.

The independent review into the 20-year-old Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC), released this morning, also flagged legally enforceable "national standards" to stop the decline of Australia's natural environment.

"The foundation of the report was that there is too much focus on process and not enough focus on outcomes and that should be changed entirely," Graeme Samuel, the review's independent author, said.

He concluded that Australia's environment was getting worse under the laws designed to protect it.

"Australia's natural environment and iconic places are in an overall state of decline and are under increasing threat," he said.

"The current environmental trajectory is unsustainable."

Environment Minister Sussan Ley immediately moved to rule out an "independent cop", which was policy taken to the last federal election by the Opposition.

But the Federal Government accepted the recommendation for national standards, which she said would form the basis of agreements with states, allowing federal approvals to be devolved to the states.

If brought into law it would establish a "one-stop shop" or "single-touch approvals".

Sussan Ley said the Government would not "support additional lawyers of bureaucracy". (ABC News: Ian Cutmore)

The devolving of federal approval powers to states has long been the aim of the Federal Government.

The report calls for the Government to maintain the power to step in on any decisions it deems important, or when a failure of state processes has been identified.

The 124-page interim report comes 20 years after the laws were first implemented by the Howard government.

"Not surprisingly, the statutory review is finding that 20-year-old legislation is struggling to meet the changing needs of the environment, agriculture, community planners and business," Ms Ley said.

"It is time to find a way past an adversarial approach and work together to create genuine reform that will protect our environment, while keeping our economy strong," she said.

The laws were first introduced by the Howard government in 1999 in an attempt to modernise environmental protection. (Greg Wood: AFP)

The report was boiled down to 10 "key reform directions", which Professor Samuel said would improve the laws he described as "ineffective", "complex" and "costly".

Those reforms included:

• No expansion to regulate additional environmental matters, including no new "climate trigger" argued for by many conservationists
• New national environmental standards, which ensure development is conducted in an ecologically sustainable manner
• Devolution of assessment, approvals, compliance and monitoring to states, reducing duplication
• A focus on environmental restoration, resulting in habitat growing, rather than declining

Independent cop call

In his review, Professor Samuel, the former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, said a "strong, independent cop on the beat is required".

Professor Samuel rejected calls for a federal environment agency, but instead called for an 'independent cop'. (AAP: Julian Smith)

"An independent compliance and enforcement regulator, that is not subject to actual or implied political direction from the Government Minister, should be established," he said.

"The regulator should be responsible for monitoring compliance, enforcement and assurance. It should be properly resourced and have available to it a full toolkit of powers."

The call echoes Labor Party policy from the last election, which called for a federal environmental protection agency — a move backed by the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF).

ACF chief executive, Kelly O'Shanassy, said at the moment protecting nature was "optional".

Regardless, Ms Ley moved quickly to rule out any new regulator.

"The Government will take steps to strengthen compliance functions and ensure that all bilateral agreements with states and territories are subject to rigorous assurance monitoring," she said.

"It will not, however, support additional layers of bureaucracy such as the establishment of an independent regulator."

Australia's bushfire crisis, itself an environmental disaster, delayed the report's findings. (ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

Speaking after the release of the report, Shadow Environment Minister Terri Butler said the Opposition would look at it carefully before "commenting in depth".

"We're in an environment crisis," Ms Butler said.

"We [need] robust decision making, high quality decision making and strong and robust environmental protection to actually stand up for our iconic native species, for our native places and for our native environment."

Funding cuts and approval delays

The review began in November 2019 but its findings were delayed by the bushfires and then the coronavirus crisis.

While the report was being prepared, the Auditor General released a report finding 80 per cent of approvals under the laws were non-compliant or contained errors.

Federal Labor analysed those findings and concluded that since the Coalition came to power, there had been a 510 per cent blowout in the number of environmental approvals delayed beyond time frames indicated in the laws.

The delays came as the government cut funding to the environment department, which Labor said was now 40 per cent lower than it was before the Coalition came to power.

The Government has argued its attempts to speed-up the process — including by giving states the rights to approve projects under federal law — were blocked by Labor.

Links

• Conservationists fear being locked out of environmental laws review
• More than 100 native species in urgent need of help after bushfires, report finds
• The environmental impact of Australia's bushfires has been exacerbated by decades of environmental mismanagement
• 'Scathing' report on environment approvals finds 80 per cent contained errors or were non-compliant
• Reviewing our environmental laws
• Australia's register of threatened species critical habitat not updated in 15 years
• Coalition is aiming to change Australia's environment laws before review is finished
• Living in the climate emergency: Australia's new fire zone
• 'Silent death': Australia's bushfires push countless species to extinction
• Australia taking six years to list threatened habitats under environment laws
• The climate change election: where do the parties stand on the environment?
• Koalas should be given endangered listing, environment groups say
• Adani mine: environmental laws designed to protect black-throated finch led to bird's decline