Submission to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (Streamlining Environmental Approvals) Bill 2020.
Introduction
The Federal legislation the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC) is currently under review by Professor Samuels, and his final report is due for release to the public prior to Christmas. In the meantime the Federal Government is pushing through a Bill called Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation(Streamlining Approvals) Bill which would give the State Governments the role of assessing development applications under the EPBC Act, without any national standards to guide their decisions.
Gecko is opposing this undue haste and has requested that such a decision is delayed at least until February 2021 until the Review report is made public and national standards are developed.
Australia’s biodiversity is in serious decline and this Bill does nothing to improve the situation because the emphasis appears to be on economic development rather than protection of biodiversity. The public was given 4 days to make a submission on this extremely important matter and you can read Gecko’s submission here:-https://gecko.org.au/download/Campaign/20201118_SUB_Gecko_Env_Council_EPBC_Bilateral_Approvals_Bill.-final.pdf
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