Sustainability Bites

There is no such thing as a free lunch

Tanya Plibersek

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.

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.

BAU and the green button syndrome – it’s the end of the world as we know it, so push the button again

BAU and the green button syndrome – it’s the end of the world as we know it, so push the button again

May 6, 2024 | , ,

To quote a much (over) used aphorism, ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.’ It sums up our approach to sustainability. I call this the ‘green button syndrome’, and to appreciate it, think of the world as a photocopier. It’s also a good way of understanding our policy response to mass coral bleaching.

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.

‘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.

Nature Positive: Real change or a just another form of box ticking?

Nature Positive: Real change or a just another form of box ticking?

Oct 17, 2023 | , ,

Will ‘Nature Positive’ deliver real change or just a new opportunity for box ticking and political window dressing? As a concept, Nature Positive has plenty of potential for good biodiversity outcomes and its endorsement in the Henry Review is a good thing for biodiversity nationally. However, like ESD before it, Nature Positive can be hollowed out or reduced to a slogan if that is where the politics takes it.

Get the basics right for National Environmental Standards to ensure truly sustainable development

Get the basics right for National Environmental Standards to ensure truly sustainable development

Mar 9, 2023 | , , , ,

Australia’s environment minister faces some tough calls in developing national environmental standards. If strong and clear, they will protect nature and make it harder to get developments approved. But if the standards lack a clear statement of purpose and carry over rubbery phrases and weak offset requirements, then it will be business as usual, freshly wrapped.

Nature Repair Market bill may repair the environment, but is it the Budget that will need repair?

Nature Repair Market bill may repair the environment, but is it the Budget that will need repair?

Feb 1, 2023 | , , ,

Can markets put a value on improvements in biodiversity, enabling landholders to be paid for their services to nature and allowing businesses, among others, to invest in the biodiversity credits that landholders would produce. The new Nature Repair Market bill certainly aligns with this framing, but investors are unlikely to sign up, at least not without inducements.

New ‘Big Agenda’ for Nature faces many hurdles

New ‘Big Agenda’ for Nature faces many hurdles

Dec 15, 2022 | , , , ,

The Albanese Government’s ‘Nature Positive Plan’ announced last week is a much-anticipated response to Professor Graeme Samuel’s 2020 Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. The plan is packed with policy announcements, most of which stick close to Samuel’s recommendations. But the path of this big agenda stretches far over the political horizon and is littered with hurdles. Here are ten hurdles the minister will have to jump, just for starters.