Environmental approvals dominate agenda for Jim Chalmers’ economic roundtable as tax reform takes a back seat

Streamlining environmental approvals is dominating the agenda ahead of Jim Chalmers’ economic reform roundtable, with a push for a national deregulation plan proving to be even bigger than tax reform.

As the Treasurer issues another round of invitations to his three-day cabinet room discussion, the architect of the blueprint to streamline environmental laws says removing the duplication of approvals is vital.

Graeme Samuel, who reviewed the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act in 2020, says the key elements for change are the States agreeing to granular national environmental standards in order to run a one-stop shop for approvals.

That would make it easy for proponents to check whether their proposal is likely to stack up, speed up decisions, and cut out the double-handling of matters by State and Commonwealth departments.

Jurisdictions that don’t sign on risk being at a competitive disadvantage.

“The conservationists and the scientists all would say ... ‘WA’s rule will be mining, first, mining, second, mining, third, environment number 28’. So you have to have the environmental standards,” Professor Samuel told The West.

But he said a federal environmental protection authority that made decisions – like the one proposed under the Nature Positive laws that floundered Parliament – was not necessary.

“This, I think, was probably the former minister’s mistake, is that she got all excited about this EPA, which I wouldn’t have got so excited about, frankly,” he said

“The EPA was not intended, in my view, to be making decisions about environmental approvals, all those sort of things, that can be done by the department.”

The Productivity Commission said on Monday that reforms were “pressing and overdue” and that the bulk of Professor Samuel’s recommendations should be adopted promptly, as did the Centre for Policy Development.

Approvals, regulation and getting rid of Commonwealth-State duplication are dominating discussions between ministers and business, and among economic officials in the lead-up to the roundtable.

Environment Minister Murray Watt won’t attend the August 19-21 event but is doing work that’s feeding into it.

The government wants to get areas of the EPBC overhaul settled sooner rather than later so it can put legislation before Parliament, with the hope of not dragging things too far into 2026.

It wants the roundtable process to focus people’s minds.

BHP’s Australian president Geraldine Slattery will join the half-day session on better regulation and approvals, as will Michael Brennan from economic think tank the e61 Institute, and Australian Conservation Foundation head Kelly O’Shanassy.

Dr Chalmers is meeting 75 chief executives across retail, banking, telecommunications, resources, transport, superannuation and technology sectors in the weeks before the main discussion.

Treasury has received nearly 900 submissions while ministers are holding 41 events of their own.