Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt said the new one-stop shop agreement would replace and streamline the assessment bilateral agreement currently in place.
"Under this agreement, NSW will be accredited to conduct a project assessment under national laws and provide the Australian government with a recommendation on whether to approve a project and what conditions should be attached to that decision under federal environment law," said Hunt.
NSW Planning Minister Pru Goward said the state would provide the Canberra with rigorous advice under national environment law, including from the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on coal seam gas and large coal mining development for projects that are likely to have an impact on water resources.
"Importantly, opportunities and timelines for the community to have a say about major developments are not proposed to change. This is about reducing needless hold-ups caused by two governments passing projects back and forth between them while they are being assessed,” she said.
"It means that projects in NSW will go through a single, NSW process, to ensure that high environmental standards are maintained."
The assurance framework includes routine reporting, evaluation and review provisions, transparency and information sharing commitments and oversight of the agreement through a senior officers' committee.
The Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association said recent announcements by the Commonwealth, South Australian and NSW governments highlighted the considerable progress towards cutting red tape that continued to be made across all jurisdictions.
Last week, the South Australia and Commonwealth governments released a draft bilateral agreement for approvals under national environment law while NSW and the Commonwealth have released for public comment a draft bilateral for environmental assessment.
APPEA CEO David Byers said industry strongly supported removing inefficient and unnecessary regulation that imposed project delays and increased costs for investors.
“At a time of global financial uncertainty and falling national income, governments across Australia must act to increase productivity and enhance our investment climate,” Byers said.
“Addressing unnecessary regulation and reducing the compliance burden on industry is critical.
“Regulations that restrict innovation and flexibility, and impose unnecessary, duplicative or inconsistent bureaucratic processes unrelated to the risk of the activity and deliver no net benefit pose a real threat to ongoing investment, growth and prosperity.
“While many impacts on current and future investment, such as the high Australian dollar, are largely beyond the ability of industry or governments to influence, other key challenges such as deregulation can and must be addressed.”
Byers said the progress made by the Commonwealth, South Australian and Northern Territory Governments towards further streamlining of offshore petroleum regulation in coastal waters through the conferral of powers and functions on NOPSEMA (National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority) was especially important for the offshore oil and gas industry.
“APPEA commends these governments, in particular, for the progress they have made and urges other state governments to embrace what is an important part of the national one-stop shop reform process.”
