About $10 million will go to process single-touch environmental approval processes. Ms Ley said on-time assessment determinations have already increased to 96 per cent in the past three years.
This is a package that will improve the quality and reliability of data used in assessments and decision-making, ensure greater transparency and flexibility around environmental offsets and reduce duplication and delay in the assessment and approval process, Ms Ley said.
It represents another important step in delivering much needed environmental reform that reduces unnecessary delay and duplication, while strengthening safeguards.
Minister for Resources and Water Keith Pitt welcomed $2 million in new funding to consider a new advisory committee to provide expert industry and technology advice to the federal government.
This will boost investor confidence by identifying areas within a particular region where development activities may be undertaken while ensuring that strong environmental protections are maintained, Mr Pitt said.
A $47 million expansion of the governments digital environmental assessment program was recently announced, helping see assessments are based on consistent data and can be approved with greater speed and transparency.
Labor, environment groups and the Greens have criticised the single-touch approvals policy, arguing it undermines proper environmental protections and favours applicants including big miners and developers.
Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, the federal government regulates projects that affect World Heritage areas, listed threatened species and other matters of national environmental significance. Large-scale mining, agriculture, or property development projects often require federal approvals.
Tuesdays announcement includes $28.4 million to better support informed decision-making processes, $12 million for the modernisation of environmental offsets policies, and about $5 million for improving knowledge of protected plants and animals in Australia.
This month, The Australian Financial Review reported companies proposing more than $100 billion of clean energy projects have overwhelmed the NSW governments request for expressions of interest to participate in the Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone.
The coastal location of the proposed zone, one of only two of the five regions around the state designated for renewables that has access to a port, has spurred interest from offshore wind companies as well as from large-scale onshore projects that could support green hydrogen or ammonia export ventures.
The Greens said earlier this year they will demand at least six months moratorium on federal approvals for all new coal, oil and gas projects as a key condition of negotiating climate change policy with an incoming Labor government.
