New National Environmental Protection Agency and Fines for Misusing Protected Information
National Environmental Protection Agency Bill 2025
House of Representatives
Senate
Assent
Topics
data privacy environmental protection government accountability government agencies government oversight government transparency information disclosure information sharing privacy
Introduced by: Senator the Hon Murray Watt (ALP)
Links to official parliament websites
Effects of this bill
If this bill passes, it means that:
The Debate
What different members said when this bill was debated:
Andrew Wallace LNP
“Freedom of information is not a privilege handed down by government. It is a right owed to the Australian people who elect us—that is, to serve them. When Australians ask their government for information, they are not being difficult. They are exercising their basic right of citizenship, and the documents of government belong to the people.”
Jerome Laxale ALP
“For too long, environmental protection has been pulled between competing politics. We had a perfect illustration just then from the contribution by the shadow environment minister, the member for Moncrieff. She says she wants more environmental protection in our law, yet she stood there for 20 minutes attacking every measure to achieve it.”
Tom French ALP
“I rise in strong support of the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and the six associated bills. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fix laws that are failing the environment, our economy and our communities.”
Kate Chaney IND
“The Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and the six accompanying bills are part of a long-awaited package of reforms to fix our deeply flawed environmental laws. I want to talk about how we got here, the good parts of the bills and the most concerning loopholes that could undermine the bills’ effectiveness. Our environmental protection laws were written last century.”
“On the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and associated bills—one of the major reasons I chose, in 2021, to give up a really meaningful job with St Vincent de Paul in South Australia and spend 10 months campaigning unpaid was the appalling record of the previous Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison government on climate and the environment.”
“In Australia, an area of forests and bushland the size of a football field is logged every two minutes. This is wanton, government sanctioned destruction of our environment by rapacious big corporations in pursuit of profit. We have the highest rate of mammal species extinctions in the world.”
Jo Briskey ALP
“That may very well be in my speech, Deputy Speaker. Every day in Maribyrnong, you can see what’s worth fighting for: the river, winding through our suburbs; the creeks, alive with birdlife; and the volunteers who spend their weekends planting trees and restoring country. That’s what this reform is about—protecting the places we love while building a stronger, cleaner, fairer future.”
Helen Haines IND
“I’m pleased to stand here today in the House and speak on the seven environmental bills that are part of the government’s environmental reforms: the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, the National Environmental Protection Agency Bill 2025, the Environment Information Australia Bill 2025 and the four environment protection and biodiversity conservation charge imposition bills.”
Ged Kearney ALP
“I rise today to speak on the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and the proposed reforms. These reforms will ensure the future and prosperity of our beautiful country and environment.”
Sophie Scamps IND
“I rise to speak on the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025. There is broad agreement that the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, or EPBC Act, has utterly failed to protect our environment for the past 25 years. We now have 19 ecosystems on the brink of collapse, and we are a global deforestation hotspot, along with Bolivia and Brazil.”
Kate Thwaites ALP
“This is a landmark piece of legislation that represents the most significant overhaul of Australia’s environmental laws in a generation. It is overdue. After our environment was neglected, ignored and left to degrade by those opposite, this is work that Labor attempted in our last term but for which we could not get opposition or Greens support in the Senate.”
“I rise today to support the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025 and cognate bills. I rise to defend nature and I rise to stand up for the engines of our nation’s prosperity. I rise to speak to one of the most important topics in the country: the land itself. It is a land that my parents fell in love with more than 50 years ago.”
Michelle Landry LNP
“I rise to address the grave concerns that many constituents, stakeholders and industries in Capricornia and beyond have about the proposed changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. While reform may sometimes be needed, what is before us is crippling industries that are pillars of our region and our nation.”
Libby Coker ALP
“Our environment is under pressure. Our laws to protect it are broken, and for too long those laws have not kept pace with the challenges we face. Whether it be safeguarding our iconic landscapes, protecting our threatened species or nurturing our unique ecosystems, our current laws are not working for our environment. Australians are concerned, and rightly so.”
Ben Small LIB
“Those opposite refer to the EPBC reforms in front of the House as ’groundbreaking’, but the very real concern that I have representing the electorate of Forrest is they’ll lead to no ground being broken at all.”
Anthony Albanese ALP
“For our government, the six months since the election have been all about delivery, delivering the policies that the Australian people voted for on 3 May: cutting student debt by 20 per cent; making it easier to buy a home, with five per cent deposits; protecting penalty rates and overtime pay; delivering real help with the cost of living through cheaper medicines; and, of course, starting last Sa…”
Julian Leeser LIB
“I rise to speak on the government’s latest attempt to rewrite the approvals framework that underpins jobs, investment and certainty in our economy. In 2024, I had the honour to deliver the Garfield Barwick oration.”
Sharon Claydon ALP
“I rise today as the federal member for Newcastle, a city deeply proud of its historical heart which sits alongside our world-class beaches and our internationally recognised wetlands, to speak in very strong support of this Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025. This bill is about far more than legislative reform.”
Mary Aldred LIB
“It’s a pleasure to follow the member for Newcastle, because, while we differ on a number of aspects of the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025, as a new person to this place, I do appreciate the real sense of collegiality that she has shown towards me in the last six months. I’d like to record my sincere appreciation for that. It’s a pleasure to rise to speak on this bill.”
Josh Burns ALP
“I thank all of my colleagues who clearly have given up a bit of time in their day to come and listen to the contribution on the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025. I’ll start my remarks by saying that I’m very fond of the member for Monash and hold her in high regard, but her comments about rushing this bill through the House are actually quite ironic.”