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Department of Climate Change, Energy, Enviroment and Water

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  1. Home
  2. Environment
  3. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)
  4. Our role in protecting the environment under the EPBC Act
  5. Independent reviews of the EPBC Act
  6. Second Independent Review of the EPBC Act
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  • Independent reviews
    • Hawke Review 2008
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Second Independent Review of the EPBC Act

The second independent review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) commenced on 29 October 2019. The final report was delivered to the Minister on 30 October 2020. It was publicly released on 28 January 2021.

This review is also referred to as the Samuel review.

About the review

The review was undertaken by Professor Graeme Samuel AC, and supported by a panel of experts. The Expert Panel brought expertise and experience in:

  • industry
  • environmental law
  • agriculture
  • Indigenous culture
  • heritage.

Professor Samuel also drew on other technical expertise as required.

Read about Professor Samuel and the expert panel.

The review looked at how the EPBC Act has been operating. It also highlighted any changes needed for Australia to support ecologically sustainable development into the future.

Public participation

All Australians were invited to participate in the review. There were 2 main ways that feedback was provided:

  • a written submission at key points
  • general comments about the EPBC Act until the Interim Report was released.

The review involved extensive consultation with interested stakeholders. This included industry, Indigenous Australians and environmental groups.

The review received:

  • more than 3,000 unique submissions
  • approximately 26,000 largely identical contributions on the Discussion Paper
  • about 840 submissions on the Interim Report.

Interim report

An interim report of the independent review of the EPBC Act was released for public comment in June 2020. The Interim Report identified the major themes raised in the consultations and set out a proposed reform pathway but did not make recommendations.

  • EPBC Act review interim report (PDF 1.34MB)
  • EPBC Act review interim report (DOCX 1.93MB)

Final report

The final report of the independent review of the EPBC Act was delivered to the Minister on 30 October 2020 and publicly released on 28 January 2021.

  • EPBC Act review final report (PDF 5.85MB)
  • EPBC Act review final report (DOCX 8.97MB)

Australian Government response

The Nature Positive Plan: better for the environment, better for business was released on 8 December 2022.

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