A coalition of NGOs in Australia call for the creation of an independent national agency to safeguard the environment and deliver effective policy. Although many western countries have established their national regulatory agency for protecting environment, Australia is an exception. The Australia Panel of Experts on Environmental Law (APEEL) held a symposium in late March on the reform of environmental laws in Australia, which aim to protect the environment and biodiversity, as well as people’s health. 

It involves a proposal to establish a high-level Commonwealth Environment Commission (CEC). The new CEC would manage a nationally coordinated system of environmental data collection, monitoring, auditing and reporting. It would also manage the conduct of environmental inquiries of a strategic nature, will provide strategy advice to the federal government on environmental matters. The government and ministers then would release the outcomes via a newly established National Environmental Protection Authority (NEPA). An alliance of leading environmental NGOs also provide a similar call. They call for an independent “National Sustainability Commission” to develop relevant plans and set relevant standards. It would replace the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and would provide authoritative and understandable consensus reports with a stronger legal basis. The rationale for reform is that national laws of Australia should be strengthened to address the challenges of climate change and to ensure that the country has capacity to mitigate and adapt to these challenges. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) the reform on air quality in Australia could help to prevent an estimated 3000 air pollution deaths a year.