STATE DEVELOPMENT BILL 2025

The State Development Bill 2025 (Bill) contains some of the most significant changes to the existing approach to the approval of major projects and the application of environmental law seen in Western Australia. The Bill was introduced to WA Parliament on 10 September 2025. The object of the Bill is to provide for the ‘coordination, facilitation and promotion of State-significant development, while taking into account social and environmental considerations.’ State-significant development is defined as development ‘of strategic or economic significance to the State’.

In seeking to achieve this object, the Bill would give the executive arm of government some extraordinary powers to approve ‘state-significant development’ and override the conventional environmental approval process. The stated intention of the Bill is to provide for the same necessary support and certainty to investors as a State Agreement, acknowledging the need for development-ready precincts. The apparent idea is to allow for piecemeal approvals within broader precincts without the necessity of an encompassing State Agreement. 

Despite this, the Minister for State Development (Minister) (currently the Premier) stated in his Second Reading Speech regarding the Bill that ‘nothing in this Bill changes the very high standards for the protection of cultural and environmental values enshrined in our robust regulatory framework’.  

The Bill gives broad ranging power to the executive arm of government. This has been the subject of some comment. However, at a time of heightened interest in defence infrastructure and other projects of state and national significance, it is not entirely surprising that a government would want the powers proposed in the Bill. Against this backdrop, the existing environmental protection system is seen as an impediment or bottleneck to obtaining approvals within an acceptable timeframe.  

Operation of the Bill

The Bill empowers the existing Office of Coordinator General with powers aimed at supporting the coordination and facilitation of state-significant development. Most notably, it allows for the modification of regulatory processes within designated Acts to promote the object of the Bill.

The Office of the Coordinator General was initially established in 2023 within the former Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation and is now part of the Department of Premier and Cabinet as a result of the 2025 Public Sector Reform. The Bill has been informed by consultation led by the Office of the Coordinator General as well as the Trade and Economic Resilience roundtable.  

The Bill grants the Minister the ability to designate a project as a priority project, where its development is of strategic or economic significance to the State. Once a project has been deemed a 'priority project’ it will be the beneficiary of functions and powers exercised by the Coordinator General aimed at timely and efficient delivery. These powers are:

·       information and consultation notice – requires that a public authority share relevant information or consult with the Coordinator-General,  

·       due regard notice – requires specified matters to be given due regard by a decision-maker,

·       timeframe notice – requires that public authorities perform functions within a certain timeframe, but cannot displace a minimum timeframe of a mandatory process,

·       joint decision notice – requires that the objects of the Bill are considered in making a decision, and that where public authority cannot reach an agreement with the Minister, the Premier or Coordinator General has the final decision-making power,  

·       modification order – the Minister may make an order to amend or exclude provisions of a designated Act, and  

·       designating State Development Areas (SDAs) – the Minister may designate SDAs and introduce an SDA plan to be embedded into the planning framework and guide development of the area.

Implications to the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA)

The Bill grants broad discretion to the Minister, with the approval of the Premier, for the purpose of issuing a modification order, which could be used to override provisions of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) (EP Act). The Minister must not issue a modification order unless the Minister considers it appropriate to do so because:

(a)      the making of the order will prevent or reduce duplication of statutory or administrative processes or requirements; or

(b)     having regard to the purpose of the affected designated Act and the object of the Bill, the making of the order will not prevent the priority project from being effectively regulated under law.

If it becomes law in its current form, the Bill will prevail against any designated Act, to the extent of any inconsistency, including the EP Act. This would be a highly significant reversal of the dominant power of the EP Act, in which Section 5 provides that where there is an inconsistency with another Act, the EP Act will prevail. Section 5 gives the environmental protection measures in the EP Act precedence over any other statute, however clause 6(2) of the Bill expressly states that the Bill can override Section 5.  Currently, only the Minister for Environment or the Environmental Protection Authority can initiate an order to exempt an area of the State or specified premises from provisions of the EP Act where they deem appropriate.[1] Given the Bill will prevail against the EP Act; it vests in the Minister the ability to override the EP Act.

The overarching power of Section 5 currently applies to State Agreements. Even older State Agreements that pre-existed the EP Act were amended so that they were aligned with the overriding power of the EP Act. This framework could conceivably be negated by the Bill.

Conclusion

The Bill is consistent with recent changes to planning laws which by the use of broad discretions, centralise power in the executive arm of government. The intention of the Bill is to support state-significant projects without the need of a State Agreement. To do this, the Bill will prevail over all designated Acts. This may have major implications for the process of environmental regulation under the EP Act.  

[1] Section 6 of the EP Act.