First ever independent environmental protection agency

THE Federal Government is in the process of establishing Australia’s first ever independent national environmental protection agency, Environment Protection Australia (EPA) – although progress of the bill through Parliament is facing pushback from the Coalition and The Greens.

According to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, the new EPA is designed to “streamline regulatory decision-making and restore public trust in our national environmental law”. 

“Environment Protection Australia will administer Australia’s environmental protection laws to better protect nature while supporting sustainable development,” says the department. “This will include stronger powers to ensure effective compliance and enforcement.” 

Minister for the Environment and Water, the Hon Tanya Plibersek says: “making sure that we’ve got a strong environmental cop on the beat is a really very important element of our law reform”. 

“Through our Nature Positive Plan, we are doing more than ever to protect our natural world and fix more of what’s been damaged, while also supporting sensible development and good local jobs.”