A guide published by Dotto
Environmental consultant: the approvals and duties behind the brief
Five approvals and duties ask a business to look before it acts: to check a project against nationally protected matters, to manage its pollution risk, to hold a licence, to report an incident, and to assess a development’s effects. This guide sets out each one, one Commonwealth and the rest from Victoria and NSW, drawn from the pages of the regulators that run them.
General information about what each law asks and who it asks it of, not legal advice. The official places to check are the National Environmental Protection Agency, EPA Victoria, the NSW Environment Protection Authority and each state’s planning department.
Two layers of law, both at once
A project can answer to the Commonwealth and to a state at the same time. The National Environmental Protection Agency, which was established on 1 July 2026, puts it plainly: “An approval granted under one does not automatically guarantee approval by the other.”
The split is roughly this. Land use, water, pollution control and air quality are generally state and territory matters, while the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the EPBC Act) protects certain nationally significant animals, plants, habitats and places. State and territory laws do not override Australian Government laws, so both apply.
Five things that put a consultant on the job
Each row is one trigger: the event that starts the work, the law behind it, and who decides.
| The trigger | The law | Who decides or receives it |
|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth A project that could significantly impact a protected matter | EPBC Act: a referral to the Environment minister | The minister or a delegate, through the National EPA |
| Victoria Any activity that creates a risk of harm from pollution or waste | Environment Protection Act 2017, section 25: the general environmental duty | EPA Victoria, whose guidance explains it |
| NSW An industrial activity that may need a licence | Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997: an environment protection licence | The NSW EPA issues it |
| Victoria NSW A leak, spill or escape that threatens material harm | Victoria: section 32 of the 2017 Act. NSW: Part 5.7 of the 1997 Act | EPA Victoria; in NSW, the regulator and the other response authorities |
| NSW Victoria A development with environmental effects | NSW: Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979. Victoria: Environment Effects Act 1978 | Usually the council in NSW; in Victoria, the Planning Minister decides whether an assessment is needed |
The federal law is mid-change
Changing by 1 December 2026. The Environment Protection Reform Bills passed Parliament on 28 November 2025. The federal environment department says some changes are already in place and the next suite will take effect by 1 December 2026. The EPBC guide here describes the process as the National EPA published it on 8 October 2026; check its pages before relying on any step or time.
The five guides
- The EPBC referral
The self-assessment, the free pre-referral meeting, the 20 business days, and the five decisions the minister can make.
- Victoria’s general environmental duty
Section 25, what “so far as reasonably practicable” asks, and how EPA Victoria expects controls to be chosen.
- NSW environment protection licences
Who issues them, what every licence holder must do, and how a licence ties into a development application.
- Reporting a pollution incident
Victoria’s section 32 and NSW’s Part 5.7 side by side: what counts, who reports, who is told, and how fast.
- Environmental assessment in a development application
NSW’s statements of environmental effects and EIS, and Victoria’s referral and Environment Effects Statement.
How these pages are written
Each guide rests on the regulators’ own pages, quoted where they are published under an open licence and put into plain words where they are not. A rule from Victoria is written as Victoria’s and a rule from NSW as NSW’s. The sources for each page are listed at its foot, and every page was checked against them on 8 October 2026.
The National EPA notes that someone else can prepare and submit a referral, but the person proposing the project remains responsible for it. EPA Victoria says something similar of a pollution incident: a business that has a contractor doing the activity on its behalf still has a responsibility to report it.