Law and policy changes in all jurisdictions, and a roundup of jobs, grants, awards and seminars. Includes a summary of Coalition environment policy election commitments.

• Upcoming events
• Jurisdictional round-up (national, states and territories)
• Jobs and appointments
• Coalition environment policy election commitments

** Featured vacancies ** The federal Department of Environment is advertising several vacancies for environmental impact assessment/environmental compliance officers.

Upcoming events:

• Large-scale solar A July 19 to July 20 conference in Brisbane.
• Biobanking – history and future A July 21 seminar in Sydney, presented by EIANZ.
• Sustainable population and climate change A July 21 address in Geelong by the Climate Council's Tim Flannery.
• Clean energy summit A July 27 conference in Sydney, hosted by the Clean Energy Council.
• Climate change: The challenge out to 2050 - Tim Flannery An August 19 seminar at the University of Wollongong, hosted by the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
• National biofuels symposium An August 23 to 25 conference in Brisbane, hosted by the Biofuels Association of Australia.
• Sustainability in public works An August 24 to 26 conference in Melbourne, hosted by the Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia.
• Victorian energy forum An August 24 seminar in Melbourne, hosted by the Energy Users Association of Australia.

For other events, including a conference in Sydney on disruption and the energy industry, see the extensive Footprint what's on listings.

National:

• Environment Minister Greg Hunt has formally listed used PV systems and products containing microbeads as wastes that could be controlled via the Product Stewardship Act if voluntary actions don't successfully manage them (related article for subscribers only). Award nominations invited: Nominations for the independent Banksia foundation awards close on August 26.

Queensland:

• The state government has gazetted a regulation that makes changes including ensuring that local governments can't rely on the new 'chain of responsibility' law to issue environmental protection orders.
• Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has tabled in Parliament a report on her visit to the US earlier this year, which had a strong focus on biofuels.
• The state government has put industry in the state on notice that it must withdraw and safely dispose of any remaining stocks of older types of firefighting foams that contain the perfluorinated chemicals PFOS and PFOA (related article for subscribers only).
• Townsville City Council has approved an application by Esco Pacific to construct a $250 million, 135MW solar farm on a former mango farm.
• Award nominations invited: Award nominations are due by Friday for the 2016 Premier's sustainability awards.

NSW:

• The EPA has advised Centennial Coal's Clarence Colliery that it can cease clean-up operations after it airlifted by helicopter a total of 214 tonnes of coal fines out of the Blue Mountains National Park. The company is being prosecuted over the 2015 collapse of an embankment that led to the incident and has entered a guilty plea.
• The EPA has issued a new bulletin on plastic microbeads in the marine environment (related article for subscribers only).

ACT:

• The ACT Government's competitive tender for the provision of energy storage capacity has drawn 17 bids, vying for a share of $2 million in funding (related article for subscribers only).

Victoria:

• An advisory committee established by the Victorian Government has proposed the introduction of a Yarra (Birrarung) Protection Act to manage Melbourne's iconic river (related article for subscribers only).
• Comment closes tomorrow on proposed changes to Victoria's VEET scheme that would allow businesses to subsidise complex energy efficiency projects (related article for subscribers only).
• EPA Victoria has issued a new licence to Renex Group to thermally treat up to 70,000 tonnes of contaminated soil annually (related article for subscribers only).
• Acciona Energy and Windlab will build two new windfarms in Victoria with a capacity totalling 100MW, backed by Victorian Government contracts to buy the renewable energy certificates that they create.
• The state government has removed an exemption that allowed some windfarm planning permits to be amended without a planning panel inquiry (related article for subscribers only).
• Grant opportunity: Sustainability Victoria is offering resource assessment grants to cover 50% of the cost of a resource assessment of their operations. Grants are capped at $10,000 for a combined materials and energy assessment, with a $3,000 implementation bonus also available. Applications must be submitted by August 5.

Tasmania:

• Nominations close on August 10 for the EPA Tasmania sustainability award.

South Australia:

• The state government has gazetted increases to its waste levy that were announced in the state budget.
• Comment closes on August 15 on draft Native Vegetation Regulations 2003 that specify four approval pathways for 39 activities.

Western Australia:

• The Auditor-General has issued a report on the management of the state's marine parks, concluding that the marine park network is not yet comprehensive, adequate and representative.
• The Legislative Council has set a new deadline of September 22 for the completion of a committee inquiry into the government's Energy Legislation Amendment and Repeal Bill 2016, National Electricity (Western Australia) Bill 2016 and National Gas Access (WA) Amendment Bill 2016.
• The Legislative Council has also specified a new deadline of September 22 for the completion of a committee inquiry into the Aquatic Resources Management Bill 2015.
• Comment closes August 26 on proposed changes to the Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Regulations 2008 to strengthen record-keeping requirements (related article for subscribers only).

Northern Territory:

• New Petroleum (Environment) Regulations require that approved environment management plans be in place for all onshore oil and gas activities that have an environmental impact (related article for subscribers only).

Jobs and appointments:

• The Clean Energy Regulator has several vacancies for regulatory officers to join its renewables and waste section.
• EPA Victoria is seeking a Latrobe Valley/Gippsland-based team leader of compliance, strategy and support.
• EPA Victoria is also seeking a operations officer, incident air monitoring for the north-eastern region.
• Defence is seeking a Brisbane-based regional environment and sustainability officer.
• The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection is seeking a Cairns/Townsville-based senior environmental officer.
• The Queensland environment department is also seeking a Brisbane-based biofuels manager.
• The Nature Conservancy is seeking an Adelaide-based marine restoration coordinator.
• Tasmania's Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment is offering cadetships, with contracts ranging from one to six years.

Coalition election commitments:

Over the course of the election campaign the Coalition made the following environmental policy commitments:

• imposing mandatory restrictions on HFC imports, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 million tonnes between now and 2030 (related article for subscribers only).
• directing up to $100 million a year from the budget of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation to projects that deploy renewables and energy efficiency technologies in cities, under its smart cities policy.
• allocating up to $1 billion from the budget of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation over 10 years for clean energy projects that have the co-benefit of improving water quality in the Great Barrier Reef.
• banning the sale of cosmetic products tested on animals.
• establishing a $5 million threatened species recovery fund to support community projects to protect endangered species.
• amending the Fisheries Management Act 1991 to ensure the Australian Fisheries Management Authority "takes into account the interests of all fisheries users – commercial, recreational and indigenous fishers".
• establishing a $30 million parks and environment funding package, comprising $24 million for projects to improve local parks, $5 million for a solar communities program and $1 million to provide surf clubs with cleaner outboard motors.
• allocating $6 million for a second crown-of-thorns control vessel on the Great Barrier Reef, as part of its $210 million Reef Trust.
• investing $150 million to fast-track the assessment and construction of water infrastructure across Queensland.