Sustainability Bites

There is no such thing as a free lunch

Peter Burnett

More need for speed: can we squeeze a little more out of the old EPBC Jalopy?

More need for speed: can we squeeze a little more out of the old EPBC Jalopy?

Aug 18, 2025 | , ,

Last year I published a blog The Need for Speed, floating ideas for solving a long-standing problem, the need for quicker environmental approvals. In the lead-up to Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ economic roundtable this week, regulatory ‘streamlining’ is very much back at the top of the public policy, so it’s time for another look. AI is being held up as a panacea for speeding up the process but this overlooks the main issues causing the delay (lack of information and poor coordination between state and federal processes). However, the old EPBC Act has some unused potential that might change the game.

It’s a hard job being environment minister. Here’s an insider’s view of the key challenges facing Murray Watt

It’s a hard job being environment minister. Here’s an insider’s view of the key challenges facing Murray Watt

May 20, 2025 | , ,

Being environment minister is a hard gig. It often requires difficult choices between environmental and economic priorities. In cabinet, the minister is often up against a phalanx of ministers with economic portfolios and overriding political imperatives such as jobs and growth. In the electoral calculus, job and growth trumps environment.

Labor’s dumping of Australia’s new nature laws means the environment is shaping as a key 2025 election issue

Labor’s dumping of Australia’s new nature laws means the environment is shaping as a key 2025 election issue

Feb 12, 2025 | , ,

The Albanese government is now the latest in a string of governments that have tried and failed to reform the law known formally as the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. This is despite two major independent reviews calling for wholesale change. Labor’s capitulation does not, however, change the facts. Australia’s natural environment is deteriorating rapidly. Laws are urgently needed to protect our nation’s valuable natural assets.

Is there still a chance of environmental reform before the federal election? Probably not, but never say never …

Is there still a chance of environmental reform before the federal election? Probably not, but never say never …

Dec 18, 2024 | , ,

The Government’s ambitious ‘Nature Positive’ initiative appears to have founded on the rocks of realpolitik. Peter Burnett has been closely following the saga of Nature Positive policy reform and believes while the chances are small that legislation establishing an EPA and EIA will be passed before the next election, they are not zero. Indeed, as he explains here, there is a credible pathway that might enable the reforms to be acceptable to all parties and still achieve significant environmental outcomes. This might be critical if the Government wants to burnish its rather dull environmental credentials as it heads into what is expected to be a tight electoral race.

The great Global Nature Positive Summit: What do you say when you have nothing to show?

The great Global Nature Positive Summit: What do you say when you have nothing to show?

Oct 15, 2024 | , ,

Australia has been a big backer of the idea of ‘Nature Positive’ with the aspiration of living in harmony with Nature by 2050. To be ‘positive’ and live in ‘harmony’ are such noble aspirations, but what do they actually mean in the brutal world of realpolitik? So far, not much, at least in Australia, where the government’s Nature Positive Plan reforms are either stalled in the Senate or deferred. Peter Burnett attended as a delegate to the Nature Positive Summit as a member of the Biodiversity Council, and came away disillusioned. Here he explains why.

Would a ‘climate trigger’ fire silver bullets?

Would a ‘climate trigger’ fire silver bullets?

Jul 16, 2024 | , ,

People have been calling for the creation of a ‘climate trigger’ for years, but to little avail. Why? Because things are complicated, and a climate trigger is not the only game in town. It’s no silver bullet, but a quick check on where Australia’s emissions are coming from suggests a climate trigger may have a role to play.

The need for speed: can we buy faster environmental approvals to enable Australia to become a clean energy superpower?

The need for speed: can we buy faster environmental approvals to enable Australia to become a clean energy superpower?

May 23, 2024 | , ,

Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment, without diluting environment has now become a national priority. What was once a problem of red tape and substandard practice, is now central to the clean energy revolution and vital to our collective future. Throwing money at the problem won’t solve it. Even more data and regulatory guidance won’t solve it, though of course it will make inroads. Solving the problem completely, achieving complete regulatory efficiency and removing a major bottleneck to Australia’s transition to a carbon-neutral economy, will take something out of the box. Maybe we should look at how the courts now do case management.

It’s time to strike an environmental grand bargain between businesses, governments and conservationists – and stop doing things the hard way

It’s time to strike an environmental grand bargain between businesses, governments and conservationists – and stop doing things the hard way

Apr 30, 2024 | , ,

For policymakers, this suggests environmental laws should define minimum viability thresholds. Some thresholds would be absolute; others would be crossable in one location provided equivalent restoration was done in another. Environmental groups could take satisfaction that thresholds would be maintained in most cases. Ecosystems would function, rivers would flow. But governments would still override thresholds for important economic and social reasons, say to approve a critical minerals project. What’s in it for corporate Australia? Business would gain upfront certainty about what can be approved and quicker approvals for projects. Environmental litigation would fall. But development options would be narrowed and offsets would become more expensive. The government would achieve a key goal: major environmental reform. But it would have to say no more often, and be transparent about crossing environmental thresholds.

Water under the bridge – what were they thinking? (Australia’s Environment Cabinet Papers 2003, Part 2)

Water under the bridge – what were they thinking? (Australia’s Environment Cabinet Papers 2003, Part 2)

Feb 21, 2024 | , ,

Recently released Cabinet Papers throw valuable light on what the government was thinking back in 2003 when it was attempting to tackle the problem of inland water shortages and an ailing River Murray. The papers reveal that they were prepared to accept the scientific advice as long as it didn’t rock the boat and didn’t cost too much. Exercising ‘precaution’ they were not.

Environment Cabinet Papers 2003: An Emissions Trading Scheme was (almost) a lay-down misère

Environment Cabinet Papers 2003: An Emissions Trading Scheme was (almost) a lay-down misère

Jan 31, 2024 | , ,

Back in 2003, PM John Howard’s colleagues were telling him that his entrenched views were standing in the way of sensible policy and that now was a good time to introduce an emissions trading scheme with minimal risk and minimum loss of face. In reply, Howard told his colleagues that his political instincts were right and that the most important players, key Liberal Party backers, agreed with him. The irony was that, while Prime Ministerial power might trump policy power, people power trumps the lot. Two elections later, in 2007, Howard was thrown out, partly because of their lack of action on climate change.

‘Nature Positive’ sausage anyone?

‘Nature Positive’ sausage anyone?

Dec 15, 2023 | , ,

Next year, the Australian Parliament will consider one of the most significant environmental reforms in our history with the Government promising legislation to implement its Nature Positive Plan, replacing the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act 1999. The path to this point has been long and winding. First the National Party backflipped on its support for the bill, then the Greens did a backflip on their opposition to it, all in pursuit of politics over policy. Then we come to other cross-bench Senators, whose position is variable at best and unpredictable at worst. We need this to work.

How to beat ‘rollout rage’: the environment-versus-climate battle dividing regional Australia

How to beat ‘rollout rage’: the environment-versus-climate battle dividing regional Australia

Oct 31, 2023 | , ,

Clean energy developers are caught in a perfect storm, at loggerheads with environmentalists and landholders alike over environmental conditions, proper consultation and compensation, while grappling with long regulatory delays and supply chain blockages for their materials. They see a system that provides environmental approval on paper but seemingly unworkable conditions and intolerable delays in practice. Does the bureaucracy’s left hand, they wonder, know what its right hand is doing? Net zero, nature protection and “rollout rage” feel like a toxic mix. Yet we have to find a quick way to deliver the clean energy projects we urgently need. As tough as this problem appears, elements of a potential solution, at least in outline, are on the table. These elements are: good environmental information, regional environmental planning and meaningful public participation. The government’s Nature Positive Plan for stronger environmental laws promises all three.