PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Western Australia has become the latest state government to announce a reform of its approvals process to encourage more resource investments.

Western Australian Mines and Petroleum Minister Bill Marmion on Wednesday announced a new Mining Bill aimed at encouraging investment by reducing red tape and improving transparency. The legislation was the first step in a “major revamp” of the approvals system in Western Australia, where the resources sector is worth about A$102-billion.

“The resources sector is a major contributor to our economy, and the flow-on benefits it provides to all Western Australians is front and center of the state government’s reform agenda,” Marmion said.

“We are introducing reforms that make it clearer, easier, and cheaper to do business in Western Australia, whilst maintaining strict environmental standards.”

However, Marmion stressed that the state’s drive for resources investment did not mean that development could happen at any cost.

This Bill is the first tranche of legislative reform to implement the recommendations of the Reforming Environmental Regulation programme, and Marmion said that additional reforms to strengthen the compliance framework and underpin a risk-based assessment system were planned for 2014.

“Risk-based regulation enables government to set strict environmental standards and clear expectations of industry and allows companies to manage and mitigate any risks to achieving these standards,” the Minister said.

“This frees up our regulators from designing prescriptive conditions for each project they assess, and can instead direct their time to monitoring and enforcing compliance.

“The result will be more inspectors on the ground and a better understanding of what is actually happening in our environment.”

The current amendment Bill will facilitate environmental data release and is another step towards finalising the Mining Rehabilitation Fund’s regulatory framework, which will become compulsory from July 1, 2014.

Earlier this month, Queensland also announced an approvals process overhaul, mainly focusing on the coal industry. The new process will aim to halve the time taken for companies to be granted exploration permits in the state.

The federal government has also announced measures to streamline environmental approvals and has vowed to slash red tape and avoid duplication.