Green groups have accused the Albanese government of watering down a proposal to protect threatened species and ecosystems.
National environmental standards were the key plank of reforms to Australia’s nature laws, passed by the parliament in November.
The government has been consulting on a draft standard for projects of national environmental significance, including endangered wildlife, world heritage areas and the great barrier reef.
Environmentalists have criticised the latest draft which they say removes the requirement for developments to meet specific environmental objectives.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia emailChanges to the draft standard, released Thursday, would mean developers would be considered to have met the objectives if they follow certain processes or “principles” in their environmental assessments – rather than directly demonstrating the required environmental outcomes can be met.
The Wilderness Society said the changes undermined the intent of national standards, which was to reverse the decline of plants, animals and ecosystems.
“The draft standard is a step backwards and will not protect wildlife from extinction or stop the destruction of forests,” biodiversity policy and campaign manager, Melanie Audrey, said.
Audrey said the draft standard for matters of national environmental significance was “riddled with weak language, loopholes and fails to set clear red lines to protect nature”.
WWF-Australia said the latest version of the standard was weaker than the first draft released last year and further removed from the clear, measurable standards proposed by Graeme Samuel.
The former competition watchdog chair’s 2020 review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act found Australia’s laws had failed nature in part because they were too process-focused. The review recommended national standards that mandated measurable outcomes for the environment to turn the decline around.
Release of the draft standard comes in the same week that Anthony Albanese used a mining conference in Western Australia to announce $45m for state and territory governments to advance plans to allow them to make decisions on federal environmental assessments.
That change would in theory streamline environmental approvals by allowing states to decide whether projects meet the requirements of national nature laws, and they would assess those projects against the new national standards.
The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, said on Thursday the government would release more proposed standards in coming weeks and hoped to have the first set finalised by mid-year. He said the draft for matters of national environmental significance “set clear and enforceable expectations around impacts to our most precious species, habitats and heritage places”.
But the Australian Conservation Foundation said their early concerns that the standard did not “raise the bar for nature” were heightened with the latest iteration.
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