The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA welcomes the $128.5 million funding commitment announced by the Federal Government to streamline the assessment and decision-making process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, while ensuring strong environmental safeguards.
The funding commitment includes
- $62.3M for development of regional plans in priority development regions
- $28.4 million to support decision making, strengthen data and modernise the environmental offsets policy
- $37.9M to streamline assessment processes, and progress single touch approvals processing.
CME and its member organisations have advocated for a single touch approval process that is underpinned by consistent and robust environmental data.
“We have long supported a robust regulatory regime for environmental approvals that is efficient, transparent and free from duplication,” CME Director of Policy and Advocacy Rob Carruthers said.
“We are pleased to see the $28.4 million commitment to support decision making and modernise the environmental offsets policy. An agreed set of clear and transparent offset guidelines is important for the successful implementation of single touch processing.
“This funding, together with the $47 million committed to expansion of the Digital Environmental Assessment Program will help provide greater confidence for business investment without removing or diminishing environmental standards or safeguards.
”In addition, CME welcomes the significant funding towards establishing regional plans in 10 priority development regions and looks forward to engaging with the Department as these are progressed.
“We look forward to working with all levels of government to support the implementation of these important initiatives.”
