Offset overhaul frustrates landholders and developers
Senior figures in the land management sector say tougher federal biodiversity offset requirements are alienating stakeholders.
Changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, passed in late 2025 and being phased in through 2026, were pitched as a way to create clearer national rules, strengthen environmental protection and make project assessment more consistent.
The reforms were passed on November 28, 2025, with implementation staged across 2026.
Main image: Photo by Gareth Davies
Under the regime, project proponents including urban developers, miners and civil contractors can be required to secure and manage biodiversity offsets to account for residual environmental impacts.
Those offsets are often established on grazing or farming land, with landholders engaged to manage the environmental values of the site.
Onerus requirements
But earthtrade director Alan Key said the compliance burden had become too onerous, with recent management plans running to more than 400 pages and reading more like legal instruments than practical land management documents.
“This management plan relates to the EPBC approval of a particular project, like a mine or wind farm. They’re so prescriptive and onerous that they’re not necessarily a management plan as such anymore.
“They are in effect a contract between a developer and the federal government on how the project will achieve its environment uplift. The latest plans are over 400 pages long.
“It’s not a plan. It’s a legally binding action list consisting of, ‘here’s the environmental quality you will achieve over this specific area using these specific management actions over this specific timeframe.’”
Mr Key said the changes had created a punitive system.
“If you contravene any step along the way of this 400-page document, you have to notify the regulator within 48 hours and you can be liable depending on the regulator’s interpretation of your infraction.
“There can be any level of fines. It’s quite a brutal system. The regulator just said, ‘the only way to make sure people do this is to make this legally enforceable.’
“We used to write this plan based off of a discussion with the landowner on their experience of how their land reacts. Now it is punitive.”
Less land
Mr Key said there was now less incentive for landholders to participate.
“Beforehand the landholder could supplement the farm income with an offset. That’s not going to happen if they need to go to a lawyer each time it rains or some stray cattle get onto their block.
“No thought has been given to implementing practical, workable changes that allow for life on the land as well as facilitating development and improving the environment.
“I can see a backlog of development waiting for approvals and an increasing unwillingness for landholders to participate.”
Earthtrade is a Brisbane- and UK-based environmental consultancy advising developers, miners and infrastructure proponents on offset sourcing, land management and regulatory risk, with a focus on biodiversity offsets and long-term compliance.