Plibersek presses go on no-go green zones

Controversial no-go zones for development will be a centrepiece of the Albanese government’s new environmental protection regime, spurring calls from green groups to ensure the push to speed up the planning system doesn’t weaken environmental protections.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will announce on Thursday that the Albanese government is developing regional controls with NSW and Queensland as part of its commitment to reform nature protections, including a new and more stringent set of national environmental standards.

Federal Environment and Water Minister Tanya Plibersek.Credit:James Brickwood

“Nature is being destroyed. Businesses are waiting too long for decisions. That’s bad for everyone. Things have to change,” Plibersek said. The government aims to work with other states to make the regime national.

Earlier this month, the federal government released its response to the Samuel Review of the Commonwealth Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, where it outlined the “traffic light” environmental assessment system.

It would include no-go zones for development in areas of high environmental value, areas for “limited development” after governmental assessment and “development priority areas” where developers could be exempted from assessment under the act.

Felicity Wade, co-convener of the influential Labor Environment Action Network, said regional plans “make logical sense” but warned that previous failed attempts by state governments showed that reform was “destined to fail” unless coupled with stronger national environmental standards.

“Everyone agrees regional planning makes logical sense. But the history of regional plans is disastrous, they are all process and no outcomes,” Wade said.

“Nothing gets protected and endless trade-offs leave nothing for the environment… The national environment standards promised in the new environment laws are the foundation.”

Currently, developers’ projects are assessed on a case-by-case basis under national environment laws. Creating new no-go zones as proposed by the government would be controversial particularly when consultation has kicked off before new laws to establish tougher standards are drafted.

If the government delivers on demands from green groups, it would extend the no-go zones far beyond current national parks to protect nature in areas such as coastal forests, tropical northern Australia or the Tasmanian wilderness. However, this would disrupt the plans of developers across the country and raise the ire of the business lobby.

On the other hand, if the government’s new regional plans minimised disruption to developers and entrench existing protections available under national parks and World Heritage listed areas, it would trigger widespread protests from green groups.

Wilderness Society policy and strategy manager Tim Beshara said the proposed traffic light system would empower the federal environment minister to effectively switch off the EPBC Act’s assessment requirements when they greenlight a development.

“The way this regional planning approach is designed means that stronger environment protections are only provided for some locations, if at the same time, the destruction of other areas is pre-approved.”

Beshara said the system could create a risk of perceived corruption when business groups lobby the government for regions with development potential to be categorised as a green zone.

“It’s a power that can easily be misused and, worryingly, it echoes some of the older NSW planning systems that caught the ire of ICAC around a decade ago,” Beshara said.

The NSW and federal governments will begin consultation on its traffic light system with businesses, green groups, communities, First Nations and technical experts on an initial four regions: the Northern Rivers, Central Coast, Hunter Valley renewable energy zone and the Far Western NSW mineral sands deposits near the South Australian border.

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