PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has welcomed the federal and Queensland government’s efforts to streamline environmental approvals, saying it was an important step in reducing cumbersome and inefficient green tape.

Federal Minister for Environment Greg Hunt and Queensland Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection Andrew Powell this week signed a draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) to reduce red tape and provide certainty to businesses, while maintaining rigorous environmental standards.

“The agreement is a significant step for the Australian government as it puts in place measures to maintain current environmental protection while cutting the duplication and administrative burden which can unnecessarily delay major investments,” Hunt said.

“When fully implemented, the actions will simplify the approvals process for both the federal and Queensland governments.”

Powell said that by setting the environmental bar high, to an agreed standard, businesses in Queensland would not have to jump over the same hurdle multiple times.

“What we will have is one process that gives business certainty and produces great environmental outcomes.”

The MCA said this week that the minerals industry had long advocated the need to streamline federal and state processes, where the commonwealth set the standards for environmental responsibilities under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and devolved assessment and approvals functions to the states.

“Despite years of commitments from all levels of government to reduce and streamline green tape in Australia, the level of regulatory complexity for development approvals has increased significantly in the past seven years for little demonstrable improvement in environmental outcomes,” said MCA CEO Mitch Hooke, who added that the recent streamlining set about remedying that problem.