Bill
Environment Information Australia 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
- 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 officer called the Head of Environment Information Australia (HEIA) to improve the quality and accessibility of national environmental data.
This officer would work inside the climate change department, gather environmental information from many sources, maintain a public online register of important data assets, and report on the state of the environment.
The minister would have to table a response to each State of the Environment report within six months and arrange independent reviews every five years.
- Creates an independent statutory position to lead environmental data and reporting.
- Requires regular, independent State of the Environment reports and government responses to them.
- Establishes and maintains environmental economic accounts with help from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
- Sets up a public online register of national environmental information assets.
- Restricts disclosure of protected information, with civil penalties for unauthorised use or disclosure.
Federal government departments, the minister for the environment, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, data custodians, scientific bodies, academic institutions, project proponents, environmental groups, state and territory regulators, and the public.
Sources
em
billhome
frl act