Shadow Environment Minister, the Hon Tjorn Sibma MLC, has criticised the McGowan
Government for delays to the Environment Online project, a $28 million digital approvals
management platform which the Government previously claimed would save proponents
between “six to twelve months” in having their proposals assessed.
In an answer to a recent parliamentary question, the Minster for Environment was unable to
advise a specific date for when the first of seven proposed digital portals – also referred to as
minimum viable products – would go live – but expressed a vague hope that it might occur in the
first half of this year.
Selected industry participants would instead be invited to test the functionality of the system later
this month.
“Despite five years of red-tape reduction rhetoric the McGowan Government is struggling to
deliver the basics of an environmental approvals system it has promised budget after budget.
“The Minister cannot provide any certainty for when Environment Online, will actually come
online.
“This is despite spending approximately $9 million on development and employing 61
Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) staff and contractors to date,” said
Mr Sibma.
Mr Sibma said he felt some sympathy for the new Environment Minister, the third Labor Minister
to hold the portfolio in the last twelve months, who is coming to grips with the inaction of his
immediate predecessor.
This delay comes at a critical time when there is a backlog of private and public sector projects
worth billions of dollars awaiting proper environmental assessment, and the timeline on
approvals has blown out to thousands of days for some key projects.
Mr Sibma said that the delayed implementation of Environment Online is likely to mean that the
entire project runs behind schedule, with full functionality probably deferred two or more years
behind the original 2023 completion date.
“The promised time and cost savings are years away; so, proponents will have little choice but to
wade through a bureaucratic, cumbersome and duplicative approvals system for the foreseeable
future,” Mr Sibma said.