Australia's new national environment agency can fine a company $825 million for trashing a sacred site, but it can't put anyone behind bars.
The agency, announced last year by Environment Minister Murray Watt, will begin operating on the first of July.
Will the potential fines being proposed be enough to stop Australia’s most destructive companies?
The NEPA: Director of Policy & Law Reform at the Environmental Defenders Office, Rachel Walmsley, told the National Account the National Environmental Protection Agency will have two key responsibilities.
“On the one side, this body's going to be protecting the environment or upholding the law. But on the other side it's also tasked with fast tracking and approving [projects] in a more streamlined manner”, she said.
Protection first: Part of the agency's responsibilities will be in protecting cultural heritage sites in a bid to prevent disasters like Rio Tinto's destruction of Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, or ACEREZ's recent destruction of a Wiradjuri rock shelter near the Cope State Forest in the Mudgee district of NSW.
If it believes serious harm is going to be caused it can issue a two week order stopping operations.
The catch? To prevent destruction to a cultural or environmental site, the EPA needs to be aware that it is at risk of serious harm.
Monitor and fine: Walmsley said it would take sincere monitoring of environmental compliance to know what’s going on.
“In the new laws, the EPA will have much higher penalties that they can actually apply for companies that do breach the law,” she said.
Penalties: The agency can slap an individual with a fine as high as $1.65 million and an organisation with a fee as high as $825 million.
The agency doesn’t have the ability to issue jail time.
Behind bars? In October 2025 the National Account asked Environment Minister Murray Watt about the decision to only enforce financial penalties.
“No one has put to me that we should be considering criminal penalties”, he said. “I think it can be a little bit more difficult at times to determine the person in a company who needs to be held accountable in that kind of way”.
Watt believes that if the penalties are high enough, most company directors and CEOs would be deterred from doing the wrong thing.
It’s been done: Walmsley said there were precedents where some jail time in the most extreme cases could be warranted – and could be written into law to act as a good deterrent.
Still approving: The agency will have to balance its responsibility of protecting cultural and environmental sites with its task of fast tracking, approving or rejecting projects as well.
These projects include both fossil fuel and renewable energy projects.
“So I think a lot will come down to who the new CEO is,” Walmsley said.
On Friday, Murray Watt announced the CEO will be John Bradley, who’s coming in with 25 years of experience in environment and energy regulation.
Bradley's first day on the job is July 1.
Watch the National Account’s Archie Milligan below:
Image credit: Reuters