“Should the federal government’s Nature Positive legislation pass parliament, it will be the first time in Australia’s history a federal environment department will be responsible for administering more than 7,000 pages of legislation,” said Lachlan Clark, Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.
Today, the IPA released new research which uncovers the coalescing of power inside the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water through the legislation it administers. The analysis shows:
- The federal environment department is currently responsible for enforcing 6,803 pages of legislation – which is the highest level on record.
- In 2021, the final full year of the former Coalition government, the federal environment department was responsible for enforcing less than 3,000 pages of legislation.
- Should the three Nature Positive bills currently in parliament be passed, the number of pages of legislation administered by the Environment department will rise to at least 7,004 pages, which is an increase of 142 per cent from 2021 levels.
“The decision by the Albanese government to massively increase the power and responsibilities of the federal environment department confirms once and for all its hostility towards Australia’s most productive industries, namely our world leading resources and agriculture sectors,” said Mr Clark.
“At the time Australia desperately needs productivity growth, the federal government is handing more laws to the environmental department, which are used as weapons in lawfare by activists, such as the Environmental Defenders Office, to stop the work of Australian farmers and miners.”
To achieve reform the IPA’s research recommends the federal government:
- Reduce the size and restrictiveness of the EPBC act to pre-2000 levels. Regulatory reduction methods such as US-style one-in two-out rules should be adopted, as well as the repeal of section 487 of the EPBC Act and the ban on nuclear power under section 140A.
- Devolve environmental regulation to the states and territories. One-size-fits-all regulation is inappropriate as Canberra is too far removed from the unique environmental circumstances of each state and territory.
- Focus environmental regulation on outcomes, rather than compliance. Reform should shift regulatory obligations from the pre-operational phase to the operational phase, allowing proponents to meet their obligations while they are generating revenue.
“Handing environmental regulatory responsibilities back to state and territory governments would free Australian business and industry of the necessary regulatory duplication which they are currently being forced to comply with,” said Mr Clark.
The IPA’s latest research also shows that at the establishment of the first federal environment department in 1971, it was responsible for enforcing just 57 pages of legislation, meaning there has been more than a 100-fold increase in the volume of federal environmental legislation since.
“The political class and inner-city elites who demand regulations such as Nature Positive are never the ones who are most impacted by them. It is working Australians in the outer-suburbs and rural and regional areas that are left with the bill and left behind,” said Mr Clark.
“We need political leaders to back the regions. Our regions have so much promise and potential but are being held back by short-sighted policies which risk closing critical industries, and ending well-paid, full-time jobs.”
To download the IPA’s research click here.
