Late last year, the Albanese Government updated Australia's nature laws.

However, the reforms passed by Parliament were a missed opportunity to create the real protections nature needs.

In 2026, there will be a series of public consultations on the creation of new National Environmental Standards - a critical part of Australia's amended Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

A lot of the real-world power of the new laws sits with national environmental standards – they spell out how the new system should work in practice. Strong, clear standards will lift environmental protection, while weak or vague standards will undermine the new laws. 

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