Speakers: Business Council Chief Executive, Bran Black
Topics: EPBC reform
E&OE
Bran Black, Chief Executive: Australia’s environmental laws are broken, and this week, with the right amendments, the two major parties of government have an opportunity to fix them to help deliver the housing, the renewable energy, the critical minerals and the other infrastructure projects that our country requires.
These reforms are so very important. There’s the productivity high level point that matters. We know our productivity has been and is at a six-decade low. We know that we need business investment in order to drive productivity and as Ken Henry said going into and during the course of the Economic Reform Roundtable, these reforms are amongst the most impactful reforms that you can make in order to deliver productivity gains for our country.
But as I mentioned before, it’s more than that. There are the on the ground benefits for Australia. There are the tens of thousands of homes that are presently caught up in the system, there are the renewable energy projects that are getting clogged down in bureaucracy, there are the critical minerals projects, which we know are necessary in order for us to realise future economic potential, and there is the infrastructure that Australia requires.
All of these types of projects can be unlocked if we get these reforms right, but there is still a ways to go. The BCA, along with 25 other industry associations, is clear that these reforms can be and must be, incredibly impactful, but we need to make sure that we get the right amendments.
Amongst those, we have to make sure that we achieve the appropriate streamlining of approval processes, we retain the existing useful approval pathways, but we also deliver accreditation of states to undertake federal assessments.
We have to make sure that we appropriately temper the important powers of the EPA, and we also need to make sure that we bring about sufficient clarity to definitions like ‘unacceptable impact.’
Those key changes and others are necessary in order to make sure that at the end of the day, we deliver reforms that are a net overall benefit for business and a net overall benefit for the environment, so that we can deliver housing, renewable energy, critical minerals projects that Australia needs. We’re confident that we can get there this week, and we need the two major parties of government to work together to help make that happen.
Journalist: If the Coalition decide that they can’t support this legislation, and the only avenue to pass these laws, which you’ve said are essential, is for a deal between Labor and the Greens, will the BCA change their position and say the Bill should either be delayed or not passed entirely?
Bran: Our focus is very much on working with the Coalition and with the Government to make sure that they can come to an agreement with respect to these reforms. And that’s so very important, because at the end of the day, these reforms have to have longevity, and you get longevity when it’s the two major parties of government working together. So, our focus is very much on making sure that happens.
Journalist: You mentioned the renewables projects as well as other developments could be streamlined by this Bill from Murray Watt, you want the Coalition to pass it, just wondering what your message is to the Nationals.
Their party room is set to meet in less than an hour, and the leader of that party, David Littleproud, has said that renewable projects have lost their social license in regional Australia. What’s your message to the Nationals as why they should support the Coalition in passing this reform.
Bran: These reforms aren’t just about renewable energy, these reforms are about all major infrastructure projects and major opportunities that Australia needs in order to help drive its productivity potential.
So it’s about housing, it’s about renewable energy, it’s about delivering on our critical minerals ambitions, and it’s of course, about delivering on the infrastructure that we need as right across the community in order to account for our growing population needs.
These reforms are necessary for so many different reasons.
Journalist: If this Bill doesn’t pass this week, what will the Government have actually achieved this year out of its Economic Reform Roundtable priorities?
Bran: Well, we’ve been pleased to see that the Economic Reform Roundtable did one key thing, and that was prioritse those reforms that we regard as being really important. So we saw that there was appropriate recognition that we need to do more with respect to our engagement with the world through streamlined trading processes, the reduction of further nuisance tariffs and so forth.
We saw that there is prioritisation of the types of initiatives that we need to undertake to improve skills across Australia. We saw that there was recognition of the need to advance our efforts to streamline planning processes, both at state levels, but also at federal levels as well. And of course, there was conversation with respect to tax.
We’ve seen that there have been some steps that have been taken already, but there is no question, there is no question that there is so much more to do. I mentioned before that our productivity over the course of the last decade is at a six-decade low. It’s at just point one of a percent over the course of the last year, and that’s against the long run average of 1.2 per cent, that’s concerning, because ultimately productivity is what locks in real wages growth, and that means that ultimately that’s how we guarantee quality of life.
So if we can’t advance and continue to advance productivity-enhancing reforms, our quality of life will suffer.
Journalist: Bran, can I ask you about the concession on the national interest exemption that Senator Watt has offered the Greens? It can’t be now used for coal and gas projects to override those projects. Is that a step backwards in your view?
Bran: Well, we’ve always taken the view that these reforms should be resource agnostic in terms of their approach. I understand that over the course of undertaking these types of negotiations, there will be conversations with respect to different concessions, but our view remains that there should be a resource agnostic approach to the delivery of these reforms.