Australia’s first National Environmental Protection Agency can order work to stop from today, with new powers to halt projects that pose an imminent risk of serious harm to protected species, habitats and heritage. It comes as Environment Minister Murray Watt launches the $250 million agency under John Bradley PSM, who takes over as inaugural chief executive after being appointed last month.
The stop-work power anchors a broader enforcement kit that allows the agency to audit operations without notice and to pursue breaches through the courts. Penalties for the most serious contraventions now reach $16.5 million per company, tied to the profits gained from breaking the law.
Native forestry within a Regional Forest Agreement remains beyond that reach until 1 July 2027, whilst operations outside an agreement have required federal approval since 1 December 2025. Current agreements allow approved harvesting to continue until 30 June 2027, after which those operations lose their exemption.
New national environmental standards, which closed consultation on 30 January, will set the point at which a forestry operation triggers Commonwealth approval. According to Stuart Coppock, a forestry legal specialist, the Act’s new injunction powers, read alongside the draft standards, could open fresh grounds for forestry lawfare.
Coppock’s breakdown of the reforms set out that the definition of a forestry operation stays unchanged, with planting, thinning and harvesting each treated as separate activities that can require their own Commonwealth approval. He noted approval would rest with the federal environment minister, acting through the Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water department.
Watt said the agency had come to life after years of advocacy and now formed the centrepiece of the government’s environmental agenda. The National EPA would help Australia “protect what’s precious while continuing to grow,” Watt said.
Bradley said the agency would put as much effort into helping operators comply as into addressing deliberate breaches, backed by new orders, audits, and penalties. It would move “decisively and quickly where we see significant deliberate breaches,” Bradley said.
Forestry groups have warned the loss of Regional Forest Agreements would tie native operations in green tape and drive more imported timber. Conservation groups, including Greenpeace, want the regulator to use its powers harder on land clearing that threatens species such as the koala.
Bradley takes charge of a remit that reaches native forestry from 1 July 2027, when Regional Forest Agreement operations lose their exemption. Those five remaining agreements across NSW, Tasmania and Western Australia have kept native harvesting outside federal approval for a quarter of a century.
