Fix our enviro laws: make a submission to the government on the EPBC Act. 

Your step by step guide to writing a strong submission on the EPBC so we can stop new climate-wrecking coal and gas projects in their tracks!

Why make a submission?

Right now, our national environment laws are out of line with the warming climate we’re all witnessing. Bushfires, floods and heatwaves harm people and the places we love. Since its inception, consecutive Environment Ministers have approved 740 fossil fuel projects – coal and gas projects that fuel the climate crisis and put communities at risk.

Until the 15th of July the government is seeking public submissions on the current changes to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act – the implementation of an Environmental Protection Agency and Environmental Information Australia (EPA/EIA).

The introduction of these bills is our best opportunity yet to fight for climate and emissions to be included in the reforms. There are several crossbench amendments to these bills that we support, and so we need to flood this Senate inquiry with submissions backing this in – we need to be louder than the mining lobby!

Submissions must be uploaded to the Senate Committee site.  The Committee site also contains a link to the three Bills.

Step 1: Create a document and introduce yourself

Make a word document or new Google doc and introduce yourself, including where you’re from and why you’re passionate about protecting nature and climate.

E.g. My name is Violet, I’m from Toowoomba and I demand stronger nature laws that include climate considerations because we’re already feeling the impacts of climate change in our communities and ecosystems right now.

Step 2: Understand the basics

The EPBC Act requires the Environment Minister to assess the impact of project proposals on “Matters of National Environmental Significance” (MNES), like world and national heritage sites, and threatened species and communities. An assessment for a mining, property development, land clearing, or other project is triggered when one of these MNES is considered to be at risk.

To get a project approved, proponents must put forward an Environmental Impact Assessment that meets the criteria set out by the Act. Then the project will be opened for public comment, and the federal Department for Environment will provide recommendations on the project to the Minister, who makes the ultimate decision to approve or reject the project (regardless of expert opinion). In the history of the Act, only one fossil fuel project has ever been rejected – Clive Palmer’s coal mine in Queensland.

Because the whole Act only mentions climate change once, and doesn’t specifically name how to deal with climate change and fossil fuels (the most significant environmental risk), it is not fit for purpose in a climate crisis. To date, all Ministers have failed to take the climate impact of fossil fuel projects into consideration and a recent Federal Court decision found they don’t need to.

This Senate inquiry is in relation to two parts of the EPBC Act that the Government wants to legislate before the rest of the necessary changes – the Establishment of Environmental Information Australia and the Establishment of Environment Protection Australia.

In your submission, speak to how broken the Act is, how much you care about climate change and how you want to see an end to coal and gas approvals, and the right of communities to challenge government decisions.

Step 3: Make your case and recommendations

The Government promised to overhaul our environment laws. This promise must be kept. Bending to pressure from the WA mining industry is unacceptable – there is no time to waste to protect our climate, water and biodiversity.

Instead, all they are doing now is establishing two new environmental agencies – the Environment Protection Authority and Environment Information Australia. The Government has put forward three related ‘Nature Positive’ Bills to establish the agencies, and the Senate Environment Committee is holding an inquiry into them right now.

In your submission, make the case for the inclusion of climate change in the act, with the following recommendations:

  1. Implementation of a climate trigger that would automatically refer projects based on life cycle emissions limit eg within the Safeguard Mechanism limits
  2. Proponents must be required to disclose all emissions caused by a new or expanded project, including end use emissions
  3. A new overarching objective to prevent the causes of climate change and to respond to climate change impacts on Australia’s environment
  4. Provisions to ensure alignment with the emissions reduction targets set under the Climate Change Act 2022 (CC Act) and international commitments under the Paris Agreement
  5. Assess the impact of climate change on Matters of National Environmental Significance
  6. Apply all of the above to projects already under consideration

Recommendation: amend the legislation to include amendments from the cross-bench that strengthen our laws alongside the EPA and EIA.

Additional asks:

  • Improve integrity and accountability by prohibiting political donations from project proponents and providing rights for communities to challenge the merits of decisions in court;
  • Provide upfront protection for irreplaceable habitat by deeming clearing of habitats that are critical to the survival of listed species and ecological communities defined in Recovery Plans or Conservation Advices as an unacceptable impact;
  • Substantially strengthen protections for First Nations cultural heritage and cultural knowledge and enable free, prior and informed consent

Specific problems with the Bills as drafted

  • The Nature Positive (EPA) Bill does not include an independent board for the EPA. Instead the agency will be run by a CEO who is handpicked by the Minister. To ensure independence the EPA should have an independent board of directors.
  • Schedule 12 of the transitional provisions Bill includes an effective ‘fast track’ for projects by only allowing the clock to be stopped on decision timeframes to require more information if the proponent agrees. This fast track should be removed.

A template submission to inspire your own

make sure to edit this to make it your own and unique.

Submission: Nature Positive (Environment Protection Australia) Bill 2024 and related bills 

Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission on the provisions of these bills.

My name is {XXXXXXX} and I am from {XXXXX}. I write to you as a concerned member of the community and supporter of 350 Australia. I am concerned about the impacts of climate change on our natural environment and the places we love. I love the Great Barrier Reef, spotting unique birds and walking in beautiful places, but all this is at risk because of global warming, fuelled by coal and gas.

I am disappointed that laws are being introduced to create a new agency to oversee extinction without updating the substance of the laws that are driving it, and increase our knowledge of ecosystems without any imperative to prevent more extinctions.

Recommendation: that the Committee recommend a series of amendments to the Transitional Provisions Bill to ensure that the EPA and EIA are established to administer and report on a nationally environmental law that is fit for purpose.

The government must not cave to pressure from the WA mining industry – there’s far too much at stake. We need laws that consider the impacts of climate change in Federal assessment and we need them urgently. There are 59 coal and gas projects in the pipeline that threaten our natural and cultural heritage, and because of their emissions alone, should be rejected. The International Energy Agency (IEA) says that there can be no new coal and gas mines and fields developed to reach the goals in the Paris Climate Agreement.

Climate change threatens Australian World Heritage sites like the Great Barrier Reef, the Tasmanian wilderness, the Wet Tropics and the Blue Mountains – it’s imperative that the Minister and the Department consider the risks to these locations from a warming climate.

Currently, there is no consideration made by the Minister under the EPBC Act of the impact on matters of national environmental significance of the direct and downstream greenhouse gas emissions from these projects. There is no provision in Australian law to prevent the approval of projects that will lead to Australia not being able to meet its Nationally Determined Contribution and not being able to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Climate Change Act.

Recommendation:

  1. Add a standalone climate MNES (climate trigger) to ensure actions with significant
    climate impacts are assessed under national nature laws.
  2. Proponents must be required to disclose all emissions caused by a new or expanded project, including end use emissions
  3. A new overarching objective to prevent the causes of climate change and to respond to climate change impacts on Australia’s environment
  4. Properly link the Safeguard Mechanism and Climate Change Act to the EPBC Act, so
    that actions cannot not be approved if they likely to breach emissions targets and
    thresholds
  5. Assess the impact of climate change on Matters of National Environmental Significance
  6. Apply all of the above to projects already under consideration

Specific problems with the Bills as drafted

  • The Nature Positive (EPA) Bill does not include an independent board for the EPA. Instead the agency will be run by a CEO who is handpicked by the Minister. To ensure independence the EPA should have an independent board of directors.
  • Schedule 12 of the transitional provisions Bill includes an effective ‘fast track’ for projects by only allowing the clock to be stopped on decision timeframes to require more information if the proponent agrees. This fast track should be removed.

Other recommendations:

  • Improve integrity and accountability by prohibiting political donations from project proponents and providing rights for communities to challenge the merits of decisions in court;
  • Provide upfront protection for irreplaceable habitat by deeming clearing of habitats that are critical to the survival of listed species and ecological communities defined in Recovery Plans or Conservation Advices as an unacceptable impact;
  • Substantially strengthen protections for First Nations cultural heritage and cultural knowledge and enable free, prior and informed consent.

Thank you for taking the time to read my submission to this crucial law reform.

{{YOUR NAME}}

Step 4: Submit your document to the government website

Submissions must be uploaded to the Senate Committee site. If this is your first time submitting online to an inquiry you will need to create a My Parliament log in.

Save your word document as a pdf.

Remember that all submissions will be publicly available on the government website, so remember to be polite.

Feel free to flick us a message on community@350.org.au to let us know you made a submission!

Bonus points if you deliver the submission to your local Labor MP! Make sure to send us a photo if you do!