Environment ministers have backed air quality measures that include tougher controls on particle pollution, but Australians will no longer have a consistent level of protection from the serious health effects of fine particles.
Environment ministers have agreed to strengthen controls on particle pollution, speed up work on a national clean air agreement and establish a national standard for the environmental management of chemicals.
The ACT Supreme Court has refused to give two companies that are facing a $10 million contaminated soil lawsuit significantly more time to file their defences.
A Federal Government report, issued today, reveals plans to 'streamline' federal hazardous waste laws and to use mutual recognition arrangements to manage federal, state and territory threatened species lists.
The ACT Legislative Assembly has passed a bill that gives the EPA power to negotiate enforceable undertakings and clarifies that it can prosecute organisations for actions outside the Territory.
The ACT Government has introduced a bill to the Legislative Assembly that would make it easier to prosecute polluters and allow the EPA to negotiate enforceable undertakings with them.
A high-level meeting between senior state environmental bureaucrats and representatives of Australia's largest companies has discussed a range of issues that could be regulated more consistently across the nation.