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Australia to Set up Federal Environmental Protection Agency

The new Environment Protection Agency has the power to impose maximum fines for serious breaches of federal law of $780 million or a jail term of 7 years.
Australia to Set up Federal Environmental Protection Agency
An overall view of the Cadia mine in New South Wales, Australia, on on Jan. 8, 2010. Jacky Ghossein/AFP via Getty Images
Jim Birchall
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A new federal environmental protection agency and a data centre will be set up to oversee compliance and enforcement of ecological breaches by big businesses as part of sweeping changes to environmental regulation in Australia.

As part of its Nature Positive Bill, the creation of Environment Protection Australia (EPA) was announced on April 15 by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek.

Jim Birchall
Jim Birchall
Author
Jim Birchall has written and edited for several regional New Zealand publications. He was most recently the editor of the Hauraki Coromandel Post.