Law Council of Australia

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Inquiry into Nature Positive (Environment Protection Australia) Bill 2024 and related Bills

Australia’s State of the Environment Report 20211 paints a grim and confronting picture of the extent of environmental deterioration in Australia. Compared to other OECD countries, Australia has one of the highest rates of species decline.2 A year earlier, the Independent Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act) undertaken by Professor Graeme Samuel AC concluded that the EPBC Act is “outdated and requires fundamental reform.” 3

The Government’s commitment to reform the EPBC Act through its Nature Positive Plan4 is therefore both welcome and urgent. The Law Council supports the Government’s focus on “nature positive”, which picks up Australia’s international obligations under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.5 The Law Council also supports the establishment of Environment Protection Australia (EPA) and Environment Information Australia (EIA) as part of the Government’s Stage 2 of the Nature Positive law reforms.

While the Law Council welcomes the introduction into Parliament of the Nature Positive (Environment Protection Australia) Bill 2024, Nature Positive (Environment Information Australia) Bill 2024 and Nature Positive (Environment Law Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2024 (together, the Nature Positive Stage 2 Bills), each has scope for significant improvement. We have set out in this submission our analysis of the Nature Positive Stage 2 Bills, accompanied by recommendations for amendments.

Read the full submission below.


1 State of the Environment Report (2021), <https://soe.dcceew.gov.au/>.
2 Ibid.
3 Professor Graeme Samuel AC (2020), Independent Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Samuel Review), <https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/epbc-act-review-final-report-october-2020.pdf>, ii.
4 Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, Nature Positive Plan (December 2022), <https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/nature-positive-plan.pdf> (Nature Positive Plan).
5 Decision 15/4, U.N. Doc. CBD/COP/DEC/15/4 (2022), <https://www.cbd.int/doc/decisions/cop-15/cop-15-dec-04-en.pdf>.

Last Updated on 21/08/2024

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