Bill
National Environmental Protection Agency Bill 2025
passed, as at 2025-12-01. Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water portfolio.
- Sponsor
- Not recorded
- Portfolio
- Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Recorded stages
- introduced — 2025-10-30
- second reading — 2025-10-30
- second reading — 2025-11-04
- second reading — 2025-11-05
- second reading — 2025-11-06
- second reading — 2025-11-06
- committee — 2025-11-06
- third reading — 2025-11-06
- introduced — 2025-11-24
- second reading — 2025-11-24
- second reading — 2025-11-27
- second reading — 2025-11-27
- committee — 2025-11-27
- third reading — 2025-11-27
- passed — 2025-11-27
- royal assent — 2025-12-01
Divisions
No divisions recorded. Most questions are decided on the voices; this does not establish that a bill was unopposed.
Plain-language summary
Written by a model from the explanatory memorandum; not the record, as at 2025-10-30.
The bill would create a new statutory agency called the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) to handle environmental regulation under Commonwealth laws.
NEPA would issue permits and licences, carry out compliance and enforcement, and make decisions on development proposals and approval conditions.
The agency would be led by a chief executive officer appointed for a fixed term who can only be removed in specified circumstances, and the minister could issue a public Statement of Expectations that guides but cannot direct NEPA.
- Establishes the National Environmental Protection Agency as a statutory Commonwealth entity with its own budget.
- Gives NEPA regulatory and implementation functions including issuing permits, compliance, and delegated assessments.
- Sets out the chief executive officer's appointment, fixed term, removal conditions, and required skills.
- Requires the minister to table NEPA's annual reports in Parliament.
- Allows the minister to issue a public Statement of Expectations that guides but does not direct the agency.
- Permits an advisory group to support the chief executive officer.
The National Environmental Protection Agency, its chief executive officer, and entities regulated under Commonwealth environmental laws.
Sources
em
billhome
frl act