EPBC Act reforms passed

In November 2025, we published the article EPBC Act reforms: stronger protections or more red tape?, in which we reviewed key aspects of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) reform package, championed by Environment Minister Murray Watt.

On Friday, 28 November 2025, the EPBC Act reform package was passed by Parliament on the last Parliamentary sitting date for the year, following last minute negotiations and changes to gain the Greens support for the reform package.

So, what were the changes negotiated to make this long-awaited reform a reality?

Protection for native forests

One key change negotiated by the Greens was ending the exemption for high-risk land clearing and Regional Forest Agreements from the EPBC Act, meaning the logging of native forests will no longer be exempt from compliance with the EPBC Act provisions.

This change provides an 18-month sunset period (until 1 July 2027) before the exemption is removed. The Government announced a $300 million fund for the forestry industry to support jobs and assist the logging industry invest in new equipment and facilities and transition away from native forest logging.

Further, land clearing exemptions for "continuous use" (which utilises 1999 era loophole to enable the continual clearing of areas previously cleared at that time) will be tightened through monitoring and enforcement under the EPBC Act reforms.

Limiting fossil fuel projects for fast-tracking and exemptions

The Greens also negotiated the removal of gas and coal projects from the fast-tracked approvals stream, meaning that such fossil fuel projects will be required to undertake thorough environmental assessments, including public consultation.

Additionally, fossil fuel projects will not be able to be declared by the Minster to be in the "national interest" and therefore exempt from compliance with the EPBC Act provisions.

The Greens were able to negotiate the retention of the "water trigger" for large coal mining and coal seam gas fracking projects, to ensure federal oversight where such a project may have significant impacts on water resources (including ground water tables).

Positive ministerial discretion

The threshold test for the Minister's approval of a project has been reframed from "not inconsistent with" to "consistent with" the applicable National Environmental Standards. This seemingly marginal change will result in a higher bar of environmental considerations for projects to satisfy.

Limiting offset usage

The Greens, together with other prominent conservation groups, have heralded the offset market as a "pay to destroy" scheme, which lead to further criticism when Labor's reform package included the Restoration Contribution Fund for developers to pay into where a threatened species is impacts by a proposed development.

The negotiated reforms allow the Minister to specify in a protection statement for a listed species or community that payment into the Restoration Contribution Fund would not be permitted to offset certain impacts on "protected matters" (such as, for example, habitats of critically endangered species).

When does the reform package commence?

Different aspects of the reform package will commence at different times.

There will be a transition period whereby existing projects that have not received a final decision when the laws take effect will be assessed under the current EPBC Act.

New projects that haven't been referred yet will need to comply with the new EPBC Act provisions.

The National EPA will be established on 1 July 2026.

Draft National Environmental Standards released

Whilst not forming part of the concessions negotiated with the Greens, it is also noted the Government have now released drafts of its National Environmental Standards for both Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES) and Environmental Offsets.

Matters of National Environmental Significance Standard

The MNES Standard is a statutory instrument to guide ministerial decision making at the approval stage of projects which will impact a MNES (such as, for example, world heritage items and listed threatened species) or other matters protected under Part 3 "Requirements for environmental approvals" of the EPBC Act (such as bilateral agreements with states and territories).

As its outcomes are legally enforceable, the MNES Standard will enable the Minister to impose conditions to further its objective of protecting, conserving, restoring, recovering and sustainably managing MNES and other protected matters. This is achieved through the application of its principles, namely:

• The mitigation hierarchy (avoid, mitigate repair, offset);
• Impacts, including cumulative impacts, on protected matters are to be considered appropriately and in context;
• Offsetting is only to be utilised where significant residual impacts have exhausted the mitigation hierarchy; and
• Evidence in the form of data, engagement with First Nations people and transparent consultancy processes.

Environmental Offsets Standard

The Environmental Offsets Standard will bring about significant changes in the approval stages for proposed developments, requiring proponents to demonstrate a project will deliver a net gain for environmental conservation and rehabilitation (as opposed to avoiding a net loss), offsets for which will be required to be obtained prior to the impact occurring.

Similarly to the MNES Standard, residual significant impacts are first subject to the mitigation hierarchy, the exhaustion of which would then lead to one of three pathways:

• Offsets to be delivered in the same biodiversity region in which the impact is to occur (failing which, a similar region);
• Biodiversity certificates to be purchased from the Nature repair market; or
• Paying into the Restoration Contribution Fund (the limitation of which has been discussed above).

Public consultation on the MNES Standard and the Environmental Offsets Standard is open until Friday, 30 January 2026.

Please get in touch with our Environment and Planning team if you would like to discuss how the proposed reforms may impact the approval and delivery of your particular project.