On 15 June 2020, it was announced that the Commonwealth will work with the states and territories to reduce the assessment and decision timeframes for 15 major projects under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
Major projects are determined to have national economic or strategic significance. The 15 identified major projects are estimated to contribute more than $72 billion in public and private investment and will support tens of thousands of jobs across Australia.
Major projects will be subject to the same requirements under the EPBC Act as all referred projects.
The Australian Government will work with the states and territories to establish joint assessment teams to progress these projects.
These teams will work to reduce duplication in assessment processes between the two levels of government.
This process will reduce the assessment and decision times of major projects.
| Major Project | State | Project Description |
|---|---|---|
| Road infrastructure WA | Western Australia | MainRoads WA is managing a series of road projects that will provide transport corridors to regional centres and alleviate congestion. |
| Perth Airport upgrades | Western Australia | Perth Airport is proposing to develop a new runway to reduce delay costs to airlines and passengers and increase tourism potential. |
| M12 (Western Sydney Freeway link) | New South Wales | Transport for NSW is proposing to construct a new 16 kilometre east-west motorway from the M7 motorway at Cecil Hills to the Northern Road at Luddenham to connect the Western Sydney International Airport to other employment and population centres. |
| Sydney Metro Greater West (Western Sydney Airport Rail link) | New South Wales | Transport for NSW is developing a new metro line to service the new Western Sydney Airport from St Mary’s to the airport and beyond. The rail will become the Western Parkland City’s transport spine, linking residential areas with job hubs and the new Western Sydney International Airport. |
| Inland Rail | Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland | The Australian Rail Track Corporation is managing the Inland Rail project that will provide transit times of less than 24 hours for freight trains between Melbourne and Brisbane, via regional Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. |
| Coffs Harbour Bypass | New South Wales | Transport for NSW is proposing to upgrade approximately 14 km of the Pacific Highway at Coffs Harbour. The bypass seeks to improve connectivity, road transport efficiency and safety for local and interstate motorists. |
| Emergency town water projects | New South Wales | Water NSW is managing a series of projects to secure, or at least extend, critical human water supply to drought affected regional NSW towns and contribute to the longer-term drought resilience. |
| Snowy 2.0 | New South Wales | Snowy 2.0 will link two existing dams, Tantangara and Talbingo, through 27 km of tunnels and building a new underground power station. This will reduce volatility in the electricity market, ensure reliability and help to bring down rising electricity costs. |
| Narrabri Gas Project | New South Wales | Santos is proposing to develop a coal seam gas field in the Gunnedah Basin of New South Wales. This project could supply half of NSW’s natural gas needs. |
| Burrup Hub | Western Australia | Woodside is proposing to link its existing gas processing facilities on the Burrup Peninsula (north of Karratha, Western Australia) with new gas resources, to create a regional Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) production centre to service both domestic and export markets. |
| Iron ore projects | Western Australia | Rio Tinto is proposing a significant expansion of mining operations at both new and existing iron ore mine sites. |
| Rail projects | Western Australia | METRONET are overseeing an integrated transport and land use framework that will support growth of the Perth metropolitan region over the next 50 to 100 years. It includes new rail and rail stations. |
| Olympic Dam extension | South Australia | BHP is proposing to expand its Olympic Dam mine that produces a range of materials including copper, uranium, gold and silver. Production at the mine would increase from 200,000 tonnes per annum of product to up to 350,000 tonnes per annum. |
| EnergyConnect | New South Wales and South Australia | Project EnergyConnect is a proposed high voltage transmission line connection between the South Australian and New South Wales power grids. |
| Marinus Link | Tasmania and Victoria | Marinus Link is a proposed 1500 megawatt capacity undersea and underground electricity connection, to more strongly link Tasmania and Victoria as part of Australia’s future electricity grid. |