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Business saw enviro plan before scientists

Rebecca GredleyAAP
The Threatened Species Recovery Hub says Australia is already a world-leader in extinctions.
Camera IconThe Threatened Species Recovery Hub says Australia is already a world-leader in extinctions. Credit: AAP

Business groups were given draft environmental protection standards to look at before Australia's threatened species scientific committee.

The committee is set up under the national environmental protection laws which the federal government is trying to change.

A Senate inquiry has on Tuesday held a public hearing into the changes, which involves cutting red tape without beefing up protections first.

The government has instead used the existing laws as a basis for the interim standards.

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Threatened species scientific committee chair Helene Marsh was given a copy at the end of March, at the same time as the heads of other statutory committees.

"I was very surprised," she told senators.

Officials from the Minerals Council and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association said they first saw the interim standards in February, at the same time as other business groups.

Neither Professor Marsh nor the business groups were asked to provide any input.

Prof Marsh says it was a far cry from how former competition watchdog Graeme Samuel conducted a review into the environmental laws, which has led to the changes.

Professor Samuel found Australia's environmental trajectory was unsustainable and the protection framework was not fit for purpose.

He set a path forward to improve protections, which had support from the majority of broad stakeholders.

It involved tougher national environmental protection standards, an independent watchdog and a streamlined process to cut red tape.

The government has first moved to streamline the approval process by shifting its decision-making powers to the states.

The government says the interim standards will be in place for two years before the tougher set Prof Samuel outlined are introduced, but environmental groups fear that will never happen.

Threatened Species Recovery Hub director Brendan Wintle said a lot of environmental harm could occur in two years.

"If you're doing streamlining without solving the base problem, then I think we run the real risk of major environmental harm," he said.

Professor Wintle said Australia was already a world-leader in extinctions.

Since 1985 threatened bird populations have declined by 50 per cent or more.

Australian Academy of Science spokesman Craig Moritz said the interim standards were not scientifically credible.

"The issue we're facing is if we keep accumulating more and more threatened species ... the developers and the farmers and the miners are not going to be able to do anything without tripping over threatened species," Prof Moritz said.

"It's going to cause long-term damage to the economy."

Business groups are more trusting of the government's two-year time frame for tougher standards, saying the current changes on the table will help speed up approvals.

Business Council of Australia boss Jennifer Westacott says the government should outline a clear path for staged reforms and ensure there is broad support.

"The important issue to work through will be mitigating any legal uncertainty and regulation that is so prescriptive that it will unduly limit economic development," she said in the group's submission to the inquiry.

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