The project
The project aims to explore and develop ways to improve the environmental approval process for mining projects.
During collaborative workshops held in August 2019, state and local government, industry, business, and community representatives came together to explore the key issues raised by industry and develop a range of practical and effective reform proposals to progress to implementation.
The first of these proposals, the development of an end-to-end process map and user journey maps, is underway and aims to help applicants better understand and navigate the mining environmental approvals process.
Streamline WA is also collaborating with the Department of Mines, Industry and Safety Regulation (DMIRS) and the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) to progress a number of reforms related to mining environmental approvals.
Project progress
Why do we need this reform?
Mining projects are required to obtain multiple environmental approvals from government agencies, including the Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation and the Environmental Protection Authority.
In March 2019, Streamline WA received a number of submissions on regulatory reform proposals from mining industry bodies. A significant number of these submissions focussed on mining environmental approvals and the challenges industry faced when trying to navigate these processes.
The key issues identified in these submissions include:
- Duplicated regulatory requirements
- Poor agency communication, collaboration and coordination
- Long and unclear assessment time frames
- Inconsistent and changing assessment processes
- Ineffective and inconsistent risk-based assessments
- Limited access to online processes and information.