What does the 2024-25 Federal Budget say about environment, planning and First Nations issues?
20 May 2024
20 May 2024
On 16 April 2024, the Australian Government announced that in the coming weeks it will introduce legislation to establish Environment Protection Australia (EPA) and Environment Information Australia (EIA). The EPA will administer the EPBC Act whilst the EIA will provide environmental data and information to the Government and public. We wrote about the EPA and EIA in our 13 February alert Overhaul of Australian environmental laws begins in earnest with release of detailed consultation papers.
It is not clear when the remainder of the reforms will be progressed. The Minister's 16 April 2024 announcement says that the Government will fully deliver the third stage of environment law reform contained in the Nature Positive Plan, and that there will be a comprehensive exposure draft of the new laws released for public consultation prior to their introduction to Parliament. However, no timing is mentioned and it is not clear whether this will occur before the next election due by September 2025.
The Federal Government has made several environment policy announcements as part of its 2024-25 budget, and many of the initiatives had already been announced.
The Minster for the Environment and Water's 14 May 2024 media release Advancing Nature Positive Australia says "We’re … investing around $307 million of nature positive improvements in our laws and institutions".
This includes:
The Budget's Future Made in Australia – Strengthening Approvals Processes section includes a number of measures designed to remove clogs in the Federal environmental approvals system. According to the Minster's media release, this includes $134.2 million to strengthen and streamline environmental approval decisions on priority projects, including renewables and critical minerals projects.
The Government had previously announced $96.6 million of this funding to be used to:
The Budget also includes $19.9 million to process assessments for priority renewable energy related projects.
The budget contains detail on the Federal Government's $22.7 billion Future Made in Australia package (Future Made Package). The Future Made Package includes new policies, tax incentives and expenditure aimed at helping Australia become a renewable energy "superpower", securing its place in a changing global economic and strategic landscape.
We provide more detail about this in our 17 May 2024 alert: Supporting a future 'Made in Australia' – Energy policy announcements in the 2024-25 federal budget.
The Budget includes a number of First Nations initiatives including:
We will be writing about these issues further in our upcoming Native Title Year in Review 2023-2024 (to be published in early June 2024).
The 2024-25 budget includes the following environment initiatives:
Many of the environmental initiatives in the 2024-25 budget had already been announced.
It remains to be seen whether funding provided to improve assessment pathways will have the desired effect of removing clogs in the approvals system and allow for more timely decision making.
Legislation to create the EPA and EIA is likely to be introduced in early June 2024, but it seems unlikely that further reforms to implement Stage Three of the Nature Positive Plan will be introduced before the next election. The Budget allocates only $5.3 million to progress legislative reforms in 2024-25.
Businesses should consider the potential impacts of the proposed reforms on their business and if they should participate in consultation on environmental law reform either directly or through a relevant industry body.
2024 – 2025 Australia Federal Budget Update (14 May 2024)
Summary of the 2024 – 2025 Budget.
Supporting a future 'Made in Australia' – Energy policy announcements in the 2024-25 federal budget (17 May 2024)
Outlines impact of the budget on the energy industry including a look into the Future Made in Australia package.
Nearing Net Zero – Future Made in Australia Act (13 May 2024)
Summarises the suite of incentives and subsidies for advanced manufacturing and clean energy projects packaged through the Future Made in Australia Act.
Australia's proposed National Environmental Standards (16 April 2024)
Outlines the proposed new environmental standards and includes a Stop Press about the Federal Government's announcement to stage the release of the reform legislation.
Assessment pathways under Australia's proposed new Federal environmental laws (28 February 2024)
Outlines the differences between the current and proposed new assessment pathways.
Overhaul of Australian environmental laws begins in earnest with release of detailed consultation papers (13 February 2024)
Provides an overview of the reforms and details of the proposed new Environmental Protection Australia (EPA) and Environment Information Australia (EIA).
No new Federal cultural heritage legislation in 2023 – but change is coming (25 July 2023)
Discusses Federal cultural heritage law reform.
Government set to reform national environmental laws but there are some challenges for industry (12 December 2022)
Discusses the Federal Government's Nature Positive Plan.
Authors: Leonie Flynn, Expertise Counsel and James Zhou, Graduate.
The information provided is not intended to be a comprehensive review of all developments in the law and practice, or to cover all aspects of those referred to.
Readers should take legal advice before applying it to specific issues or transactions.