Pilbara environmental plan: Environment Minister Murray Watt reveals overhaul to speed up approvals

Miners looking to develop new projects in the Pilbara will get faster approval decisions with a traffic light system built into a new regional environmental plan, the first for Western Australia. Environment Minister Murray Watt revealed the Federal Government has started work on the plan for the powerhouse resources region, in concert with the WA Government and industry. “That’s a key mechanism for getting the quicker approvals that industry and the government are seeking,” Senator Watt told The West. He said green groups also backed the concept of offering a map that designated areas according to their likelihood of needing strong environmental protections. “You can say, ‘OK, well, I can’t do my gold mine or my iron ore mine or whatever here, so I’m not even going to bother’ … and give people a quick no,” he said. “But if you propose it for the more green-light zone, if you like, then you’re going to get a much quicker approval process.” The group representing smaller miners said it made sense to focus such work on a key strategic zone like the Pilbara, and would give better outcomes because of the regional focus rather than looking at just the footprint of each project. “It’s a much better way to do things,” Association of Mining and Exploration Companies chief executive Warren Pearce said. “It does require a lot of upfront work, but we’re very supportive of that, because we think if that information is available and done by government, then they’ll both trust it but also it’ll make the process of getting approvals much simpler and much faster.” Work on the Pilbara region plan comes as speeding up approvals emerges as a key focus for next week’s economic and productivity roundtable. Leaked Treasury advice reported by the ABC recommended the Government adopt a national artificial intelligence plan to speed up approvals and deal with a massive backlog of housing applications for assessment. The issue of approvals and duplications of Commonwealth and State processes has been dominating discussions between ministers and business, and among economic officials in the lead-up to the roundtable, as The West reported last week. Senator Watt wants to get legislation to overhaul the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act into Parliament before Christmas, according to an industry source. That timeframe will take an immense amount of work. The minister was reluctant to publicly set a deadline but said he was keen to get the changes finalised by the middle of the term, around mid-2026. “If there’s an opportunity to do that sooner, then we’d be keen to take it,” he said. Shadow minister Angie Bell said her door was open when it came to speaking with Senator Watt about the Coalition supporting the latest attempt to overhaul the EPBC Act. “It’s too important to get wrong … in terms of protecting our environment, but also making sure that investment continues in industry and in our country for jobs across the nation,” she said. The leaked advice also reportedly suggested the Government should freeze the national construction code for a period, along with the focus on planning deregulation. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said he’d been regularly getting briefings from Treasury on the hundreds of ideas put forward for the roundtable and that should hardly come as a surprise. “We’re not pre-empting any outcomes or directions out of next week but we are, with Treasury’s help, preparing for them,” he said. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese anticipated the roundtable would result in some things that could be done immediately, other that needed legislation, “some things will feed into next year’s budget, (and) some things will feed into future commitments about future terms”. But Opposition Leader Sussan Ley cautioned against a process where “it’s all been choreographed, it’s all been lined up”.