Aaorn Morey says ‘unworkable’ WA environment standards that ‘risk thousands of WA jobs’ needs rewrite

The environmental standards that will underpin a new assessments regime are “unworkable” and could put thousands of West Australian resources jobs at risk, the State’s peak mining body will warn senators. Two of the proposed six national environmental standards that set the rules underpinning the revamped Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act have been out for consultation and are now having further versions drawn up. Environment Minister Murrray Watt said last week that 750 submissions had been made on the standards establishing matters of national environmental significance, and the new system of environmental offsets, showing clear interest in the work. A Senate committee originally set up to examine the legislation before the Government did a deal with the Greens to push it through late last year is now looking at those standards. WA’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy chief executive Aaorn Morey will tell them business fears the standards won’t achieve the Government’s stated aim of creating a system that is better for both the environment and business. “Unfortunately, as currently drafted, the MNES and Offsets standards fall short of the ‘better regulation’ test set by the Treasurer,” Mr Morey will tell the committee on Friday. “We consider the standards unworkable in their current form.” Industry has only seen two of the standards, and hasn’t seen details of a proposed restoration contribution calculator or the new “net gain” requirements. The CME holds several key concerns about the draft offsets standard, some specific to WA and some that will affect projects more broadly. It wants to see a requirement that offsets start before the impact they are compensating for, or for a lump sum to be paid upfront changed to allow a more staged approach, arguing that upfront payments would create a significant financial hurdle for projects trying to get off the ground. There are also provisions in the offset standard proposing 25-100 year maintenance periods, that won’t work under WA’s system of 21-year leases for Crown land. Nor does the State have the high quality, high certainty data about all species and environmental regions of WA as apparently assumed in the draft standard. “If we fail to get this right, the future of our sector is at serious risk, and with it the thousands of families that depend on us. But done properly, these reforms can strengthen environmental protection while providing the certainty investors need,” Mr Morey said. The committee will also heard from the Minerals Council of Australia and the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies, environmental groups including the Australian Conservation Foundation, and housing bodies during the lengthy hearing on Friday. The second tranche of the EPBC laws came into effect last week, enabling greater information sharing between different levels of government and project proponents among other measures. The bulk of the new assessment system and the establishment of the National Environment Protection Agency start in July. Senator Watt confirmed The Nightly’s report that agency would be located within the Environment Department’s building in Canberra – in the basement – but said it would operate separately. “It’s important to know that this will be an independent agency, it won’t be a part of the department in a formal sense,” he told ABC radio.