The Australian Parliament passed the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Reconsiderations) Bill 2025, restricting the Minister for the Environment’s power to reconsider certain past decisions under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). This change has significant implications for environmental oversight, particularly in cases where new information emerges about the impact of ongoing land use activities, such as the concerns raised over salmon farming in Tasmania’s Macquarie Harbour and its potential effect on the endangered Maugean skate. Holding Redlich Special Counsel Katharine Huxley is an environment and planning lawyer with experience in development, compliance, local government, and administrative law, who can discuss the implications of this significant new amendment. In this interview, Huxley explains what this will mean for future land use and environmental management in general.
