The Australian resources sector has welcomed an announcement by Prime Minister Scott Morrison to cut the waiting time for environmental approval for major projects, and to reduce red tape.
Morrison on Monday said delayed associated with the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act approvals had cost the industry some A$300-million in 2019.
“The Commonwealth has already taken steps to cut project approval times under the EPBC Act. At the end of 2019, approval decisions took 90 days on average. Today they take 40. That is what we’ve achieved this year in 2020,” Morrison said.
“Our goal is to cut these times by a further 25% by the end of this year – to 30 days for major projects. Ultimately, our objective is the streamlining of Commonwealth and state processes to a point of ‘single touch approvals’.”