Brendan Pearson, Chief Executive, Minerals Council of Australia (MCA), says: “The minerals sector is disappointed that the Labor Opposition has turned its back on the reform effort initiated by the Gillard Government to streamline Australia’s duplicative federal/state approach to environmental approval processes.
“Four years after recognising that parallel federal and state regulatory processes were inefficient and costly, the Labor Party’s Environment Policy will entrench duplication.”
The Gillard Government was right when it argued that removal of unnecessary duplication could provide both more effective management of the environment and cut the red tape for job-creating projects. At the time, then Prime Minister Julia Gillard said: “What we want to work towards here is a streamlined system, so that projects don’t go through two layers of assessment for no real gain… it’s double the time, things that have been required for the first assessment are required in a slightly modified form for the second assessment, so they don’t even get the benefits of just uplifting the work and re-presenting it, it’s got to be redone. So clearly that is an inefficient system.”
The streamlining of approvals approach initiated by Julia Gillard and developed by the Coalition Government would facilitate better co-ordination on both state matters and those of national significance, enabling a more strategic approach to environmental protection across regions.
The evidence in support of a more streamlined approach has been consistent and compelling.
Reviews of the EPBC Act by respected bureaucrat Dr Allan Hawke, the Productivity Commission, and the Council of Australian Governments have concluded that duplicative processes could be reformed without weakening environmental protections.
The 2009 Hawke Review recommended that “the Commonwealth should give full faith and accredit state systems that are proven to provide good environmental outcomes”. The Productivity Commission said in 2013 that a “one project, one assessment, one decision” framework for environmental matters was the best way to address directly overlapping and duplicative processes, while ensuring progressive environmental outcomes.
A range of analyses including by the Australian National University, the Department of Environment, Deloitte Access Economics, Port Jackson Partners, BAEconomics and the Business Council of Australia, has highlighted the cost burden imposed by duplicative approvals processes.
According to the Department of Environment, duplication costs business A$426 million annually. A one-year delay can reduce the net present value of a major mining project by up to 13% and cost up to A$1 million every day.
“The benefits of reform are substantial. Reducing Australia’s long and duplicative assessment and approvals processes for mining by one year (down from the present average of over three years) could improve Australia’s competitiveness, attract tens of billions of investment and tens of thousands of jobs over the next decade. The mining industry supports strong environmental protections – the industry is the third largest direct employer of environmental scientists. But duplicative approaches don’t improve environmental outcomes they simply delay projects at the expense of jobs, investment and better living standards.”
