Overview
The Australian Government’s Environment Protection Reform Bills were passed by the Australian Parliament on Friday 28 November 2025.
The reforms implement the key recommendations of the 2020 Samuel Review. Some parts of the new laws have already commenced while others continue to be rolled out in stages.
Once fully implemented, these reforms will deliver:
stronger environmental protection and restoration
more efficient and robust project assessments
greater accountability and transparency in decision making.
The next stage of the reforms will set up the future environmental regulation system for success. Two key reforms that will commence under the law on 1 July 2026 are:
the establishment of the National Environmental Protection Agency (National EPA)
the statutory head of Environment Information Australia (EIA).
We are consulting on the policy settings for new or updated rules and regulations that:
support a smooth transition to the new National EPA
provide more certainty for projects and environment protection
reduce duplication across different regulatory systems
We are proposing that these supporting laws come into effect on 1 July 2026, rather than the default date of 1 December 2026.
Consultation documents
Overview
1. Transition to National EPA
1.1 National EPA powers and penalties
1.2 New Audit arrangements
1.3 National EPA rules for transparency
Paper 1 Transition to National EPA [PDF 1.65MB]
Paper 1 Transition to National EPA [DOCX 1.25MB]
2. More certainty for projects and environment protection
2.1 Protection statements
2.2 Rulings
2.3 Unacceptable impacts
2.4 Minor or preparatory works
2.5 Reconsiderations
2.6 Lapsing not-controlled actions
2.7 Other minor changes
Paper 2 More certainty for projects and environment protection [PDF 894KB]
Paper 2 More certainty for projects and environment protection [DOCX 1.16MB]
3. Reducing duplication
3.1 Bilateral agreements
3.2 Commonwealth accreditation
3.3 NOPSEMA declaration
3.4 Greenhouse gas reporting
Paper 3 Reducing duplication [PDF 844KB]
Paper 3 Reducing duplication [DOCX 1.16MB]
Have your say
Your feedback is invited on the policy settings to support new laws.
To have your say:
read the consultation papers
consider your feedback
take our survey to submit your feedback by 11.59pm AEST, Thursday 21 May 2026.
We will consider all relevant feedback to inform development of supporting laws. We will not be considering feedback on the primary laws (Acts), as these have already been passed by parliament.
We have designed this consultation survey to ensure you can provide clear feedback on different elements of the reforms in this consultation.
