WA beefs up state environment watchdog with more funding for new hires

Western Australia is putting more funding into its hard-pressed Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), almost a year after major reforms were passed to speed up decision-making.

The state will spend $5 million over three years to fund the new board positions added by the reforms passed in October last year.

The EPA board was expanded from five to nine members to improve the agency’s frontline assessment capacity, and it also got a new CBD office hub in Perth. 

In total, the government is setting aside $16.7 million in this year’s budget to bulk up environmental processes, a move that shows WA is “open for business”, says environment minister Matthew Swinbourn.

“We’re building the capacity to assess projects faster while maintaining high environmental standards and sustainable development,” he said in a statement.

“Building a strong, sustainable environmental approvals system remains a government priority.”

Most of the extra funds is prioritising water issues. 

In addition to funding the extra EPA board positions, the government is also spending $4.5 million to hire 11 full-time people to manage an expected increase in water license and work applications at the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation. 

Some $4.2 million will be spent on speeding up water planning in the Pilbara with both development and the impacts of climate change top of mind. That will be divided between hiring five more staff to update planning information and putting in place real-time monitoring of infrastructure.

The government expects the upgrades to provide real-time data that can support water security in the state’s economic engine room.

The investment in Pilbara water issues shows the government is committed to trying to balance the demand of economic growth with the impacts of climate change on the region’s supplies, says water minister Don Punch. 

“The Cook government is increasing the capacity and expertise to meet the rising demand and complexity of water regulatory assessments,” he said in a statement, 

“The infrastructure upgrades will enhance transparency and deliver real-time data to boost water security in regional WA.”

The government hailed its reforms last year as “the most significant… in a generation”. 

They removed the right to appeal the EPA deciding not to assess a project, but also allowed other agencies to process and issue their own approvals while the  environmental watchdog is working through its applications. 

But they were also controversial because the reforms stripped the EPA of the power to include carbon emissions in decisions on whether to approve highly polluting projects.

The state government claimed the reason was because with the federal safeguard mechanism in place, there was no need for WA’s EPA to also monitor emissions.

The previous EPA process considered prospective emissions during the application process and encouraged proponents to find ways to reduce these before launching into a project. 

The safeguard mechanism on the other hand deals with emissions already being created and requires big emitters to buy carbon credits to offset their pollution.