It took five years, but the Australian Government’s Environment Protection Reform Bills were eventually passed by the Australian Parliament on Friday 28 November 2025.
Despite many changes, the reforms are more practical than visionary:
- they won’t significantly or immediately unlock productivity in Australia, but should yield some improvements
- while environmental protections are enhanced, Australia is not substantially pushed towards ‘nature positive’ – that branding was dropped completely, as was national monitoring and reporting on nature positive progress.
Read on for key changes for major projects needing approval under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).
How will it be quicker to get an approval under the EPBC Act?
Two key features have the capacity to speed up current approval processes.
- A streamlined 30-day project approval pathway replaces three current assessment methods (referral information, preliminary documentation provided by the applicant or a public environment report). The fast-track approval process will not be available for coal and gas projects. While this is an attempt to reduce significant delays for projects, proponents will still need to fully understand and document the scope and impacts of a project upfront, which is a material contributor to approval timeframes.
- Accredited state-based frameworks can be used to wholly satisfy EPBC Act requirements to reduce red tape for projects.
However, these benefits will take some time to crystallise as both national environment standards and bilateral agreements will have to be finalised first.
Will it be harder or easier to get an environmental approval under the EPBC Act?
On the one hand, the reforms will lift the bar to get an environmental approval under the EPBC Act. On the other hand, there will more tools available to meet that bar.
The practical change will be bigger for some states than others, as they will close the gap between state-based approval frameworks (with the new changes largely aligning with existing NSW frameworks).
What will make it easier?
Some effort has been made to help navigate the EPBC Act approval process.
- A Restoration Fund will be made available as a new way to satisfy offset liabilities. Only NSW projects previously had access to an option of this nature – being the NSW Biodiversity Conservation Fund, available under bilateral agreement.
- The Nature Repair Market may be made available for offsetting purposes in the future too. Previously, that market (and biodiversity certificates issued in relation to that framework) could not be used for an environmental offsetting purpose. But that may now be possible, if a nature repair market methodology enabling biodiversity certificates to be used for offsetting purposes is made.
- Legislated unacceptable impacts on protected matters, national environmental standards and regional plans should provide more certainty and clarity about what is required for an EPBC Act approval. With the exception of national interest proposals, an approval cannot be granted if there will be an “unacceptable impact” on a protected matter, and approval decisions “must be consistent” with the national environmental standards. Regional plans can detail acceptable impacts, and collectively this guidance could facilitate access to the streamlined approval pathway. However, these documents also may provide more points for legal challenge to EPBC Act approval decisions.
- A broadened national interest exemption empowers the Minister to exempt a project from approval requirements or complying with standards. It may now be available to any project the Minister considers in the ‘national interest’, other than coal or gas projects.
- Strategic assessments will enable landscape-scale approaches to assessments and approvals, determined upfront and over broader regions. This will remove approval requirements for individual projects within a class of actions approved by the strategic assessment or bioregional plan.
What will make it harder?
Four material changes may make it harder to obtain an approval.
- A net gain test will apply to actions that will have a residual significant impact on matters of national environmental significance (MNES). The detail of how this will be implemented will lie in new national environmental standards.
- Evidence of appropriate and suitable consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and contribution of their knowledge will need to be demonstrated by proponents. While there are established guidelines (such as Ask First), this will be the first time that proactive investigation of Indigenous knowledge will be hardwired into the EPBC Act regulatory framework.
- The ‘mitigation hierarchy’ must be applied when planning controlled actions – first seeking to avoid, then mitigate, and then repair any impacts – before offsets are considered.
- Offsets must be ‘like-for-like’, and this concept is tightened to require the offset to ‘relate to the same specific attribute of a protected matter that is impacted by a proposed action’. This may make it harder to source offsets.
Changes 2 to 4 are detailed in draft standards currently on public exhibition, so could be subject to some changes before being finalised.
When will the changes kick in?
Commencement of the reforms will vary from item to item:
- some elements will commence the day after assent (likely within the next couple of weeks) such as provisions to make environmental standards
- amended approval pathways, the unacceptable impacts, net gain and standards consistency tests are expected to commence on 1 July 2026
- ·other changes should commence within 12 months of assent.
Generally speaking:
- ·new projects that haven’t been referred at the time relevant changes commence will need to comply with new laws
- existing projects that have not been finally determined when laws take effect will be assessed under the current EPBC Act and arrangements. However, after a transitional period the new laws may apply to these projects too.
Consultation on the draft MNES and offsets standards will close on 30 January 2026.
Reach out to EMM to understand what these changes may mean for your project.
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