The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Restoration Charge Imposition) Bill 2025 establishes a framework to impose charges on approvals, registrations and exemptions granted under the EPBC Act, directing those funds to a dedicated restoration account to compensate for and achieve net gains in biodiversity impacted by approved actions.
It creates four distinct charges (restoration contribution, bioregional plan registration, national interest exemption and Part 13 exemption charges) and leaves charge amounts to be set by regulation.
The Bill amends the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 by inserting a standalone taxation Act—the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Restoration Charge Imposition) Act 2025—to impose:
All charges are credited to a new Restoration Contributions Special Account and must be spent by the Restoration Contributions Holder on restoration actions that deliver net gains for matters of national environmental significance. The Act does not prescribe charge amounts—regulations will do so via flat rates or calculation methods—and sets out liability rules, commencement, Crown-binding, extraterritorial application and required periodic reviews of regulations.
By making proponents of environmentally significant actions pay for the full cost of restoring or improving affected habitats, the bill internalises ecological externalities and ensures that biodiversity losses are actively reversed rather than merely permitted [Judgment].
The dedicated Restoration Contributions Special Account guarantees that funds collected are ring-fenced for genuine on-ground restoration, monitoring and maintenance—reducing risks of misallocation or political reprioritisation. This mechanism aligns private incentives with public environmental goals, creating a powerful market signal that discourages harmful development and funds positive conservation outcomes.
Flexible regulation of charge amounts allows methodologies to evolve with scientific understanding and cost data, ensuring the system remains adaptive and responsive to emerging evidence and ecological needs. In the long run, this innovation will strengthen Australia’s capacity to safeguard its unique ecosystems and meet international commitments on biodiversity protection.
While well-intentioned, the bill relies on complex, regulation-driven methods to calculate charges, creating uncertainty for project proponents about future liabilities and potentially deterring investments [Judgment].
Because charge amounts are not fixed in the Act, businesses face open-ended financial risks and administrative burdens of compliance, monitoring and dispute resolution, which may disproportionately impact small operators and impede timely infrastructure or resource projects. The bill effectively operates as a concealed tax on property and development rights without clear legislative oversight of rates, eroding certainty in land-use planning.
Finally, the proliferation of multiple charges (restoration, bioregional plan, exemption) risks redundancy with existing offset schemes, adding layers of compliance rather than streamlining environmental regulation. Without stronger evidence that this approach will deliver net conservation benefits beyond current mechanisms, the additional regulatory burden may outweigh ecological gains.
2025-10-30
Passed Both Houses
Unspecified
Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Climate Change / Environment