The majority voted in favour of a motion to read this bill for a second time.(Read more about the stages that a bill must pass through to become a law here. ) This means that the majority agree with the main idea of the bill and that they can now discuss it in more detail.
Background to the bill
The bill was introduced to amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 in relation to bilateral agreements between the Commonwealth and Australian states and territories.(Read more about bilateral agreements here. ) The bill provides for the following:
- states and territories can be accredited for approval decisions on large coal mining and coal seam gas developments likely to have a significant impact on a water resource;
- all states and territories can be declared under the Act for the purposes of requesting advice from the Independent Expert Scientific Committee;
- an approval process can be completed when an approval bilateral agreement is suspended, cancelled or ceases to apply to a particular action;
- state and territory processes that meet the appropriate standards can be accredited for bilateral agreements;
- a relevant bilateral agreement continues to apply to an accredited state or territory management arrangement or authorisation process despite minor amendments to the arrangement or authorisation process; and
- proponents do not need to make referrals to the Commonwealth for actions that are covered by an approval bilateral agreement.(Find out more about the bill, including its explanatory memorandum, here.)
These amendments all relate to the Australian Government's one stop shop policy for environmental approvals.(Read more about the one stop shop policy on ABC News and The Conversation.)