ARTICLE · 12 APRIL 2010

Major Changes Proposed to Federal Environmental Laws by Hawke Review

Clayton Utz

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The Hawke review of the EPBC Act suggests changes that, if adopted, would be a significant overhaul of key elements of the EPBC Act.

AustraliaEnvironment

Thomas Kwok

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Key Points

The Hawke review of the EPBC Act suggests changes that, if adopted, would be a significant overhaul of key elements of the EPBC Act.

The long-awaited Final Report of the independent Hawke review of Australia's flagship environmental law - the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) - was tabled in Parliament on 21 December 2009.

If the Final Report's recommendations are adopted, the scope of the EPBC Act could be broadened significantly, and we could have Australia's first climate change-related approval trigger.

In this article, we provide a brief overview of the review's findings and recommendations.

Themes in the Final Report

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