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Beach Energy interim chair Ryan Stokes has warned Australia’s energy transition is at risk of failure as an ambiguous and complex environmental approvals process adds to growing domestic supply constraints. Mr Stokes said gas projects were experiencing extensive and costly delays in the environment approvals process. “According to the regulator, only five applications have received approval in the last 12 months and there are over 40 applications under review,” he told the company’s annual meeting on Tuesday. “A process that may have previously taken months is now taking close to two years.

Nearly half of Australia’s business leaders say long environmental approvals are a big risk to the country’s ambitions to cut emissions, adding to growing alarm about green tape tying up projects. A total of 47 per cent of respondents were concerned about the approvals, while only 37 per cent of the corporate decision-makers surveyed felt Australia could hit the crucial net zero by 2050 target. It is the latest warning signal to emerge in an escalating battle over regulations — delaying projects across the country.

In the absence of any further improvements in the regulatory framework of our resources sector, and in particular with regard to critical minerals, Australia will cede its competitive advantage to other nations with less stringent approval processes and environmental standards. Our leaders seem to have forgotten the crucial role that the mining and resources sector has played and will continue in play in the development of our great nation.

Shadow resources minister Susan McDonald has accused the Federal Government of a “regulatory war” on oil and gas as red tape drags on more than $20 billion of investment. Writing in The West Australian on Wednesday, the Queensland Liberal-National senator claimed the Government was sacrificing the oil and gas industry — the State’s second-biggest exporter — to win green votes in Sydney.

New traditional owner opponents against Santos’ $5.8 billion Barossa offshore gas project in the Northern Territory have joined the legal battle, as a Federal Court proceeding started that could be a key test case over underwater Aboriginal cultural heritage approvals.

Deteriorating energy infrastructure, lacklustre entrepreneurship and poor competition rules are holding back the Australian economy, with a new report suggesting a drop in competitiveness is putting at risk future prosperity. In a ranking of the most resilient economies, Australia fell to 20th place from first place in 2004, analysis by Institute of Public Affairs senior fellow Kevin You found.

Michael Briggs is drowning in red tape. Briggs says his manufacturing firm Six Wheeler Conversions, which converts four wheel vehicles to six wheels, has spent $300,000 on regulations in the past three years meeting state and federal certification requirements Briggs says new vehicle conversions require federal certification while modifications on preregistered vehicles require state certification. He says a new federal application system was implemented for second stage vehicle manufacturing approvals three years ago, quadrupling the approval process, typically taking more than five months per vehicle model.

Premier Roger Cook said trade in resources continued to underpin WA’s economic strength.
“Every Western Australian can be proud of the success of our resources sector, and the massive contribution it makes to the national economy,” he said. “As the world moves to a low-carbon future, we’re positioning WA as a renewable energy powerhouse — and our record lithium sales show we’re on the right track.”

Australia is struggling under the burden of red tape that is growing at nearly twice the rate of the national economy, leading to urgent calls for parliament to act to cut out-of-date regulations and ban new rules from being imposed without old ones being repealed.