The Australian Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, has announced the federal labor government will establish an environmental protection agency to oversee its new legislation on environmental protection and conservation laws.
The new independent body is part of the federal government’s ‘Nature Positive Plan: Better for the Environment, Better for Business,’ announced on Thursday by Plibersek to address the findings of the 2020 Samuel Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBCA) by Prof. Graeme Samuel.
The Review found that the EPBCA required fundamental reform.
“Australians do not trust that the Act is delivering for the environment, for business or for the community,” Samuel said in the report (pdf)….