The We All Come Together for Country Bill 2025 amends the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to prohibit and penalise industrial emissions that damage First Nations rock art and other nationally significant heritage monuments.
It creates a new class of controlled action and establishes processes for vulnerability investigations, ministerial declarations of vulnerable monuments and prohibited areas, and associated penalties.
The Bill amends the EPBC Act by introducing new provisions to protect rock art and other national heritage monuments from airborne industrial pollutants:
The amendments apply to actions beginning on or after commencement.
Australia has an obligation to protect unique cultural landscapes and natural monuments that embody the heritage of First Nations peoples. Rock art sites such as Murujuga are of global significance and represent millennia of human creativity and relationships with Country.
This Bill fills a clear policy gap by recognising the physical degradation of monuments from sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, ammonia and particulate matter as matters of national environmental significance under the EPBC Act. Mandating evidence-based vulnerability investigations and transparent declarations of vulnerable monuments and prohibited areas ensures that industrial activities are held to account, supports informed decision-making and grants Indigenous custodians a formal role in protecting their heritage.
By aligning penalties with existing controlled action offences and subjecting legislative instruments to parliamentary disallowance, the Bill balances robust heritage protection with democratic oversight and encourages industry to adopt cleaner practices to safeguard irreplaceable national treasures.
Heritage protection is already addressed through the EPBC Act, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act and state and territory laws. It is unclear whether this emissions-based regime remedies an actual gap or merely duplicates existing frameworks.
The requirement for vulnerability investigations and ministerial declarations introduces significant compliance and administrative costs for industry, especially energy and mining projects vital to the national economy, without clear evidence that these measures will deliver proportionate heritage benefits.[1] Delays from added regulatory layers may deter investment and undermine energy security.
The Bill also lacks defined quantitative thresholds for “damaging industrial action”, creating uncertainty and the potential for arbitrary restrictions that conflict with broader infrastructure and commercial objectives [Judgment].
Estimate based on average costs of environmental impact assessments under comparable federal regimes.
2025-03-26
Senate
Before Senate
COX, Sen Dorinda
Unspecified
Climate Change / Environment, Indigenous, Democratic Institutions, Civics, Discrimination / Human Rights