Australian PM says enviro approval timelines to be reduced
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has vowed to speed up the environmental approval process for projects, which he says are “overly complex, duplicative and taking too long”.
In a speech delivered at the yearly Business Council of Australia dinner, he announced that government would partner with Western Australia to develop a system that would allow project proponents to submit a single application through an online portal, track its progress and access a database of biodiversity studies relevant to their project.
“It takes approximately three-and-a-half years for a complex major project to navigate the state and commonwealth environmental assessment process. It's estimated that this timeframe could be reduced by between 6 and 18 months through the better use of technology,” Morrison said.
The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (Amec) welcomed the news of a single environmental approval portal, noting that it would make a “material difference” to approval timeframes.
“For several years Amec has been actively engaged with federal and state governments on reducing approvals timeframes, and has called for the streamlining of approvals in our federal policy platform,” said CEO Warren Pearce.
He noted that the announcement came alongside a broad commonwealth commitment to cutting red tape, which included the review of the Environmental Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act and the Deregulation Task Force.
“The Western Australian state government has been driving reform through Streamline WA, and the proposed single digital approvals process and biodiversity database provides an example of how State approvals could also be improved between departments,” said Pearce.
Morrison also acknowledged the role companies such as BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue had played in the development of the biodiversity database.
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