We must overhaul our environmental laws, urges Dr Ken Henry

Posted on 17 Jul 2025

By Nick Place, journalist, Institute of Community Directors Australia

Shutterstock bushfire after — Our environment is being ravaged by inaction on much-needed reforms, according to Dr Ken Henry

Australia must urgently overhaul environmental laws through dramatic reforms if it is to achieve its productivity ambitions, let alone secure net zero goals and hand future generations an inhabitable landscape.

That was the argument put forward by the chair of the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation (ACBF), Dr Ken Henry, at the National Press Club this week.

Dr Henry said the ACBF was established in 2021 to “help decision-makers find means of securing the restoration of Australia’s natural environment in ways that support a thriving 21st century economy”, so he was on-message as he questioned why not a single recommendation had been implemented from the independent review of the existing environmental laws chaired by Graeme Samuel in 2019 and 2020, despite strong support from environment ministers under both Liberal and Labor governments.

He said the lack of action was indulgent and extremely costly.

“I am here to make the case for the urgent reform of Australia’s broken national environment laws, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC),” he said. “Clearly, this is not a small task. There have been three failed attempts in the past 15 years. But reform is essential. And this is the time to get it done.”

The title of his speech was “Our last, best chance”.

“Last, because if we don’t secure these reforms in this term of Parliament, then neither the net zero nor Global Biodiversity Framework commitments will retain any credibility. And best, because the solutions and remedies to fix the mess are not only clear, but they also enjoy broad stakeholder support,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean reforms will be easy. No reform is. Commercial and political vested interest is always tempted to exploit the moments of uncertainty generated by any reform proposal, and for some, the stakes are high. After all, we have whole industries with business models built on the destruction of the natural world.”

Dr Henry said Graeme Samuel’s review had made 38 clear recommendations aimed at reversing nature loss by cutting through complexity, confusion and cumbersome processes that hamper meaningful environmental protection and economic progress.

“Remarkably, the wide-ranging set of recommendations was supported by both business and environmental organisations,” he said. “Support from both camps remains strong today, despite two parliamentary terms marked by a failure to pass the necessary legislation.”

He didn’t hold back. Dr Henry told the Press Club he was angry “at our collective failure to design economic structures, including environmental regulations, that underpin confidence in a better future for our children and grandchildren.

“We have known about these problems for years now. Environmental policy’s ‘too hard basket’ is overflowing with important ideas. The too hard basket is an indictment of those who have been prepared to sacrifice the nation’s future."

As a former Treasury secretary, Dr Henry acknowledged the need for economic growth and strong exports but said these also relied on reshaping the EPBC Act.

Highlighting the government’s goals to lift mining exports, develop better mineral processing facilities and construct 1.2 million new homes by 2030, he said these ambitions were impossible without reform.

“They must be delivered in a way that not only protects, but restores, nature,” he said. “To put it bluntly, there is no chance of Australia meeting stated targets for net zero, renewable energy, critical minerals development, housing and transport infrastructure without very high-quality national laws that set clear environmental standards for major projects, a strong national regulator respected by all parties, and significant improvement not only in Commonwealth environmental protection systems, but also in those of the states and territories.

“And all these projects will be critical to enhancing economic resilience and lifting flagging productivity growth. Boosting productivity and resilience relies upon environmental law reform.”

“Gradually, economic policy minds around the world have woken up to the fact that time is fast running out for the natural world, the foundation of all life on Earth.”

Dr Ken Henry, chair, Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation (ACBF)

Dr Henry painted a bleak picture of a future without reform, detailing the increasingly fraught state of Australia’s natural environment and resources. The problem, he said, extended beyond the growing list of extinct and endangered species and continued land clearing.

“Gradually, economic policy minds around the world have woken up to the fact that time is fast running out for the natural world, the foundation of all life on Earth.” he said. “It is now well accepted that a degraded natural world poses myriad threats to food systems, the provision of clean air and water, and the continuing supply of other ecosystem services critical to production. And it is well accepted that things are getting worse, much worse, not better.

“As Graeme Samuel found, the EPBC Act has done little more than record the degradation of the natural world, one project at a time. And without major reform, that is all it will ever do,” he said.

“I have previously described our failure to steward our natural resources as an intergenerational tragedy, as intergenerational theft, and as a wilful act of intergenerational bastardry. I guess I’m in danger of running out of printable descriptions to convey the gravity of the situation.”

There was still time to correct course, he said.

“Our ambition should be to build an efficient, jobs-rich, globally competitive, high productivity, low emissions, nature-rich economy,” he said. “Realising that ambition will take time, of course. Decades, probably. But this Parliament can put in place the key policy settings that will be required.

“In reforming the EPBC Act, we can get this right. We have had all the reviews we need. All of us have had our say. It is now up to Parliament. Let’s just get this done.”