15 Dec 2014
APPEA welcomes progress by the Commonwealth and state governments towards developing a One Stop Shop for environmental approvals.
Recent announcements by the Commonwealth, South Australian and New South Wales governments highlight the considerable progress towards cutting red tape that continues to be made across all jurisdictions.
Last week, the South Australia and Commonwealth governments released a draft bilateral agreement for approvals under national environment law while NSW and the Commonwealth have today released for public comment a draft bilateral for environmental assessment.
APPEA Chief Executive David Byers said industry strongly supported removing inefficient and unnecessary regulation that imposed project delays and increased costs for investors.
“At a time of global financial uncertainty and falling national income, governments across Australia must act to increase productivity and enhance our investment climate,” Mr Byers said.
“Addressing unnecessary regulation and reducing the compliance burden on industry is critical.
“Regulations that restrict innovation and flexibility, and impose unnecessary, duplicative or inconsistent bureaucratic processes unrelated to the risk of the activity and deliver no net benefit pose a real threat to ongoing investment, growth and prosperity.
“While many impacts on current and future investment, such as the high Australian dollar, are largely beyond the ability of industry or Governments to influence, other key challenges such as deregulation can and must be addressed.”
Mr Byers said the progress made by the Commonwealth, South Australian and Northern Territory Governments towards further streamlining of offshore petroleum regulation in coastal waters through the conferral of powers and functions on NOPSEMA was especially important for the offshore oil and gas industry.
“APPEA commends these governments, in particular, for the progress they have made and urges other state governments to embrace what is an important part of the national One Stop Shop reform process.” Download PDF
Media Contact