On 24 February 2022, the NSW Parliament passed a Bill to amend five key pieces of environmental legislation. The amendments are wide-ranging and will have significant impacts on the liability of directors and businesses for environmental offences. The amendments also strengthen the NSW Environment Protection Authority’s ability to hold offenders to account. Read more

The New South Wales Land and Environment Court has granted a development consent subject to conditions requiring PFAS-contaminated material be removed and impacted land remediated. The PFAS-contaminated material had been placed for soil improvement and was discovered during a site view for the proceedings. Read more

The NSW Government has gazetted a new regulation which will ban the use of per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from 26 September 2022. NSW follows Queensland (in 2016) and South Australia (in 2018) in seeking to address the cause of this fast growing environmental risk issue. Read more

The Cooperative Research Centre of Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment, in consultation with the National Remediation Framework Steering Group, has released the National Remediation Framework. The Framework is intended for use by land owners and managers, government agencies and site contamination practitioners as a reference point for best practice methods and approaches to remediation. Read more

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the Victorian Government has announced that the commencement of the State's new environment protection regime will be postponed until 1 July 2021. However, consultation continues on guidance and subordinate legislation to support its implementation. Read more

New guidance from the NSW Environment Protection Authority may assist to determine when financial assurance is likely to be required. Read more

The NSW Environment Protection Authority has released two draft Contaminated Land Guidelines. Public consultation closes on 8 October 2019. Read more

Consultation closes this Friday, 20 September on the draft Compliance and Enforcement Policy of the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER). The policy is expected to guide DWER’s actions in relation to compliance and enforcement for environmental and water-related regulation. The policy will also assist industry in engaging with DWER on such matters and understanding DWER’s approach and the likely consequences of non-compliances. Read more