Draft National Environmental Standards on Matters of National Environmental Significance and Environmental Offsets

Submission Date: 30 January 2026

The Law Council of Australia provided a submission to the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water regarding its consultation on the Exposure Draft National Environmental Standards (NES) on Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES) and Environmental Offsets (ED MNES Standard and ED Environmental Offsets Standard respectively).

The second independent review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act) undertaken by Professor Graeme Samuel in 2020 (the Samuel Review) recommended the development of NES as the centrepiece to necessary reform of the EPBC Act.¹ The power to make NES was legislated through the recent Environment Protection Reform Act 2025 (Cth) (EPR Act), which inserts a new Part 19B to the EPBC Act allowing the Minister to make, revoke, or vary NES. The Law Council welcomed the provision of architecture to support the development and application of NES under the EPBC Act,² and looks forward to supporting the development of those Standards.

This submission is informed by input from the Law Council’s Legal Practice Section Australian Environment Planning and Law Group, the Law Institute of Victoria, the New South Wales Bar Association and the Victorian Bar.

^{1 Professor Graeme Samuel AC, Independent Review of the EPBC Act (Samuel Review) (Final Report, October 2020) ii <https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/epbc-act-review-final-report-october-2020.pdf>. Note NES for MNES were originally developed in 2024 under the previous Government but were never finalised. See e.g. Department of Climate Change, Energy the Environment and Water, Australian Government, Nature Positive Plan: Better for the environment, better for business (Report, December 2022) 11 < https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/nature-positive-plan.pdf>.
2 Law Council of Australia, Submission No 555 to the Inquiry into the Environmental Reform Bill 2025 and six related bills (22 December 2025) 3 <https://lawcouncil.au/publicassets/8d74ee46-27f0-f011-94c2-005056acd090/4770%20-%20S%20-%20Environment%20Protection%20Reform%20Bill%202025%20and%20six%20related%20bills.pdf>.}

Last Updated on 02/02/2026

Share

• Share this on Twitter
• Share this on LinkedIn
• Share this on Facebook

Tags

• Submissions Resources, Energy and Environment

Most recent items

Trending Items