Environment losing out in parallel impact assessment processes: Australian study

According to a new survey of Australian industry federal laws to protect the environment add little value to the environmental clearance process and are mostly a waste of time and money.

The research conducted by the Australian Centre for Environmental Law found that state and federal authorities did not deliver a better outcome for the environment though they added much to the cost for developers.

Andrew Mcintosh, author of the report said that the current system requires developers of major projects to undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the states and a similar process for the commonwealth.

He said the commonwealth EIA process added value only in around 10 per cent of cases while adding no value in the rest.

The study appears to support industry groups who claim that the commonwealth role hardly added anything to environmental protection over what is achieved through existing processes but burdened businesses and taxpayers with significant avoidable costs.

According to Australian Chamber of Commerce & Industry director Greg Evans the survey pointed out that more needed to be done to address the overlap between state and federal processes.