The federal government will establish a national environment protection agency to decide where development can occur and under which conditions, as part of an overhaul of the nation’s environment laws.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said environmental conditions on development projects are currently being enforced ‘on the ground’.

A federal EPA will change that by making environmental assessments, deciding which projects can proceed and enforcing those decisions.

“A new environment protection agency will make development decisions and properly enforce them,” Ms Plibersek announced during a speech in Brisbane on Thursday.

The changes are part of the government’s response to a review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act released last month, which found the act is ineffective and not fit to address current or future environmental challenges.

“Graeme Samuel’s 2022 review of the EPBC Act found the act is outdated … most Australians do not think that the act is delivering for the environment, business or community,” Ms Plibersek said.

“Nature’s being destroyed, businesses are waiting too long for decisions. That’s bad for everyone and it has to to change.”

Regional planning

The government will also introduce a new system of regional planning that will allow ‘sensible’ projects to be fast-tracked, while stopping projects in fragile places.

That will involve ‘painting the regional map like a traffic light,’  Ms Plibersek said, with green for priority development places, orange for ‘proceed with caution’ and red for precious and irreplaceable areas.

“With regional planning, we will be able to map out, quite literally, the places where development will have minimal consequence, and the places where development will be devastating,” she said.

A new data division will also be set up within the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) to make new and existing information accessible and searchable, and to report on progress on environmental laws.

The government plans to introduce legislation by the middle of next year.