Anthony Albanese is poised to announced the government will provide more than $45 million to fast-track new energy, housing and resources projects across the country.
The Prime Minister will speak at the Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA in Perth on Wednesday, where he will unveil the new funding arrangement just under nine weeks since the Middle East conflict began.
State and territory governments who sign a new bilateral assessment or approval agreement with the federal government will be able to conduct assessments and approvals, subject to new National Environmental Standards, as a single-touch process.
The agreement is funded to the tune of $45 million over the next four years.
Mr Albanese is expected to tell the Chamber of Minerals and Energy the median approval time for a project under the government’s Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act would ordinarily take about 48 weeks 20 years ago.
“When we brought our reforms into parliament, the median time frame had blown out to 118 weeks,” the Prime Minister will tell attendees.
“Too often, that means investors simply walk away, communities miss out on jobs and people miss out on new energy or housing.”
Mr Albanese will say the process will “fast-track new energy, housing and resources projects” by combining federal and state approvals – “effectively removing an entire layer of bureaucracy from the process.”
“If a state government signs one of our new bilateral approval agreements, they will be empowered to conduct assessments and approvals on the Commonwealth’s behalf,” he will tell attendees.
“So instead of a two-stage, two-track process, with that all the cost of delays and doubling up, this will be a one-step process, with one, clearer, faster, yes or no.”
In November, a number of amendments to the EPBC Act were passed with the support of the Greens.
The reforms included recommending a federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), more stringent national environmental standards and higher penalties significant breaches of environmental law.
Under the changes, the federal government were also given oversight over native forest logging.
At the time, Mr Albanese said the reforms would provide certainty to businesses, with “quicker yeses and quicker nos”, and would speed up delivery of renewable energy projects and housing.
