The Big Issue looks at Environment Protection Reform Bills - Power Surge or Power Trip?

Environment Protection Reform Bills - Power Surge or Power Trip?

Australia's Environment Protection Reform Bills 2025, passed in late November 2025 representing major amendments to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) and 11 other Acts. It established new framework for stronger Federal environmental laws, new Environmental Standards, an independent National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) to streamlining project assessments and enhance enforcement for environmental protection and accountability.

This legislation was a deal between the Greens and Labour. The LNP opposed the legislation.

Of course the devil is in the detail and we ask our guests who are great conservationists and experts in regulation how this legislation improves what it replaced. Does it represent positive reform or if we will have worse environmental outcomes? Does it give the Federal government more discretionary power to ram through projects that should receive more scrutiny. Does it provide greater certainty to important projects and does it limit our choices on energy generation?

Mike Ryan HOST

GUESTS:

Dr Peter Ridd, Adjunct Fellow IPA, Geophysicist.

Dr Peter Ridd is a geophysicist with over 100 publications and 35 years' experience working on the Great Barrier Reef and developed a wide range of world-first optical and electronic instruments for measuring environmental conditions near corals and other ecosystems. He was head of Physics at James Cook University for over a decade before being fired, in 2018, for questioning the quality assurance systems used by reef science institutions. He is an Adjunct Fellow of the Institute of Public Affairs.

Dr Alan Moran, Principal of Regulation Economics.

Dr Alan Moran is Principal of Regulation Economics. He is a noted economist who has analysed and written extensively from a free market perspective. Alan was the Director of the Deregulation Unit at the Institute of Public Affairs from 1996 until 2014. He was previously a senior official in Australia's Productivity Commission and Director of the Commonwealth's Office of Regulation Review. Alan was educated in the UK and has a PhD in transport economics from the University of Liverpool and degrees from the University of Salford and the London School of Economics.

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