Funding boost for single-touch environment approval regime

Controversial environmental reforms are being pursued with fresh vigour by the federal government ahead of the May federal election, with $128 million set aside to bolster plans for a single-touch assessment regime to speed up major projects.

Federal Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the funding package, to be delivered in the federal budget on March 29, would remove red and green tape hampering project developments and boost both the bureaucracy and jobs in regional communities.

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.

The current system under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act requires the federal government to assess major projects that affect matters of national environmental significance. Under the single-touch system, state governments would form bilateral agreements with the Commonwealth to take over this role.

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Former competition watchdog Graeme Samuel completed a major review of the EPBC Act last year and found it was failing to protect the environment. He recommended bilateral agreements with state governments to streamline approvals but said new national standards must come first.

State governments have agreed to work on a single-touch system, but NSW and Queensland are demanding the federal government create a stricter set of national environmental protections before they commit to the new regime.

Ms Ley has committed to implementing stronger national standards over time but said the single-touch system should go ahead in the meantime.

The federal government has developed a bill to enact the changes, but it requires support from crossbench senators who are refusing to back it until new national standards are in place.