The Minerals Council of Australia estimates that the EPBC process can cost companies developing greenfield resource projects up to $47 million every month. Professor Samuel recommended the job-destroying duplication should be addressed by improving, strengthening, and streamlining the capacity of the Federal Government to delegate approval functions to State governments.
It’s time to get on with reforms to better protect natural assets and deliver a needed boost for our economy.
McGowan backs PM over red tape Bills
Mr McGowan said his government had called for proposed changes 18 months ago.
“We support this legislation and WA continues to work with the Commonwealth to progress a bilateral agreement for approvals which will maintain environmental standards and reduce red tape,” he said.
“Since (originally calling for the changes) the State has been implementing initiatives to remove red tape while retaining the highest environmental standards for all applicants.”
Australia’s Competitiveness Levels Are The Lowest In 25 Years: CEDA
Despite the Australian economy responding positively to the COVID-19 pandemic and experiencing a V-shaped recovery, the report suggests that there is an urgency to rebuild economic competitiveness through increasing digitisation and reducing tax burdens.
Read moreInfrastructure project delays risk derailing economic growth
“The drought, the bushfires, the extreme weather events have really highlighted the importance of taking those shocks and stresses into our decision making right at the planning phase,” Ms Madew said.
Read moreRegions drive broader economy
“If we don’t get it right we’re not going to go anywhere, because regional Australia is actually the engine that drives the broader economy,” he said.
Read moreDon’t abandon fiscal constraint, Productivity Commission chairman Michael Brennan says
Productivity Commission chair Michael Brennan has urged the federal government not to abandon decades of fiscal restraint, warning the country at large is at risk of becoming too complacent around the generational costs of “ever-expanding debt and deficit”.
Read moreShifting the dial requires leadership on economic reform
In a speech on Wednesday to CEDA, present PC boss Michael Brennan noted that “in Australia, the decade since 2010 – even excluding last year – has seen our slowest growth in GDP per capita of any decade in at least 60 years”.
Read moreIn pride of place as a key strategic ally
It was revealed recently that when Washington first discussed the marine rotation in northern Australia, it proposed an annual rotation of 5000 marines; in effect, a Marine Amphibious Task Group. Instead, Australia began with extreme caution at a couple of hundred marines, building up slowly to 2000 a year.
Yet such US deployments make a huge, positive contribution to our own security.
Pilbara iron ore powering Australia’s economy
Iron ore is Australia’s single largest commodity export and is forecast to earn Australia around A$700 billion over the six years to 2025-26. Iron ore supports 45,600 direct Australian jobs and is a major employer of Indigenous Australians.
Read moreFocus on critical minerals in northern Australia to increase
“Putting Team Australia on the global critical minerals map will help attract the investment and technology necessary to meet the growing needs of global supply chains for critical and other minerals for high value products like batteries, solar cells and other innovative and early-stage technologies,” the MCA stated in March.
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