The Environmental Legislation Amendment Act 2025 (NSW) (Act) was assented to on 18 September 2025, with a limited number of provisions coming into effect on 23 September 2025. 

The Act amends various environmental legislation with the aim of strengthening environmental protection and ensuring 'best practice' for NSW in how the EPA regulates pollution incidents. 

Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government, Emergency Services, and Youth Justice, Jihab Dib said in his second-reading speech “this Government wants to give teeth to the Environment Protection Authority”. 

While most of the changes are not yet in force, it is critical that corporations, executives, statutory authorities and other stakeholders stay up to date and well-informed of these rapid changes.

Broad overview of the changes

The Act makes various minor amendments to the following environmental acts:

1. Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act 2023 (NSW).
2. Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 (NSW).
3. Land and Environment Court Act 1979 (NSW).
4. Pesticides Act 1999 (NSW).
5. Plastic Reduction and Circular Economy Act 2021 (NSW).
6. Product Lifestyle Responsibility Act 2025 (NSW).
7. Protection from Harmful Radiation Act 1991 (NSW).
8. Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991 (NSW).
9. Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW).
10. Protection of the Environment Administration Act 1991 (NSW).
11. Protection of the Environment Operations (General) Regulation 2022 (NSW).
12. Stock Medicines Act 1989 (NSW).
13. Waste Avoidance and Resource Recovery Act 2001 (NSW).

A limited number of changes have already commenced on 23 September 2025, comprising: 

• minor changes to the Climate Change (Net Zero Future) Act 2023 (NSW) to change the reporting period for the Commission’s annual report; and
• amending section 148 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW) (POEO Act) so that pollution incidents no longer need to be notified to the Ministry of Health.

The remainder of the Act (including the more significant changes) is not yet in force, and will commence by later proclamation.

Notable changes that are yet to commence

The remaining changes that will commence once proclaimed are significant. Some of the noteworthy amendments are discussed below.

1. New general offence for harassing EPA officers

The Act will introduce a new general offence under section 320B of the POEO Act that prohibits the harassment of a person, including by means of telecommunications service, on the basis that the person was or is an EPA officer administering environment protection legislation. The amendments follow various public reports of EPA officers being abused and harassed online for administering their statutory duties. The offence carries a high maximum penalty, up to $500,000 for an individual and $2,000,000 for a corporation, with further maximum penalty amounts for each day the offence continues.

2. Expanding EPA powers to issue notices

Section 46 of the Contaminated Land Management Act 1997 (CLM Act) already enabled the EPA to choose to regulate contaminated land utilising powers under the POEO Act instead of or in addition to powers under the CLM Act. 

The Act will amend section 46 to expand this power, so that the EPA will be able to issue a preliminary investigation notice (as set out in Part 4.1A of the POEO Act) in addition to the clean-up and prevention notices its can already issue. The CLM Act already empowers the EPA to issue ‘preliminary investigation orders’ but preliminary investigation notices under the POEO Act are broader, and for example are able to given orally.

3. Threshold for notifiable pollution incidents

The Act will amend the value threshold of material harm to the environment in the context of notifiable pollution incidents under section 147 of the POEO Act. Pollution incidents will now be notifiable if they result in actual or potential loss or property damage of an amount, or amounts in aggregate, exceeding $50,000 (up from $10,000). 

Given that ‘loss’ is defined broadly, and includes the reasonable costs and expenses incurred in taking all reasonable and practicable measures to prevent, mitigate or make good harm to the environment, $10,000 had become a very low threshold.

4. Changes regarding EMPs under the CLM Act Site Audit Statement

A site audit statement is currently able to be issued under the CLM Act on the basis that a site is suitable for a particular use, subject to compliance with an environmental management plan (EMP). This makes an EMP extremely important for owners and occupiers of land, because a failure to comply with the EMP may expose people or the environment to risks from contamination. However, the concept of an EMP had not previously been defined or referred to in the CLM Act itself. As a consequence, EMPs are not always publicly available. 

The Act will ensure that the concept of an EMP is now enshrined in the CLM Act, defining the term, expressly including it in the concept of ’remediation’, requiring that a copy of any EMP to which a site audit is subject be provided to the EPA and the local council where the land is located and included on the EPA’s public register.

5. Expansion of director liability under the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Act 

The Act will include an executive liability provision in the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Act 2025 (NSW) (PLR Act), potentially exposing directors of corporations to personal liability where any of the following offences are committed by a corporation:

• failure to comply with product steward requirements or targets (s 10(1));
• failure to prepare and lodge action plans for regulated products (s 15);
• failure to supply regulated products in accordance with approved action plans (s 19(2));
• failure to comply with directions of regulators under the PLR Act (s 20(2));
• giving false or misleading information (s 40(1)); and
• aiding or abetting the above (s 41).

This change is an example of what the Minster has described as giving more ‘teeth’ to the tiger.

6. Recovery of costs for analyses of health and environmental risks 

The Act will amend the definition of relevant person under section 295ZB of the POEO Act, in the context of costs of analysis of a pollution incident (see Part 9.3D of the POEO Act). The current definition means that the EPA can undertake a health risk analysis (section 295ZC) or environmental risk analysis (section 295ZD) and require the costs of those analyses to be paid by occupiers of the premises and/or the person reasonably suspected of causing the pollution incident.  The definition will be expanded to include the owner of the premises and/or persons who contributed to the pollution incident. 

7. Expanded definition of land pollution and implications

The Act will amend the definition of land pollution and pollution of land under the Dictionary to the POEO Act to expressly include a ‘matter placed in or on, or otherwise introduced into or onto, a building, chattel or fixture on, below or above land’. The definition refers to a matter that is placed in a shipping container on the land as an example of a matter being placed in a chattel on land.

Additionally, the Act amends the definition of hazardous waste in clause 49 of Schedule 1 to the POEO Act to expressly include lithium-ion batteries. 

This change appears to be in response to the increasing risk of toxic fires being caused in homes, businesses and garbage trucks by lithium-ion batteries being incorrectly disposed of. The amendment represents a broader push to regulate the correct disposal of all batteries. As a consequence, lithium-ion batteries placed in an ordinary rubbish bin (i.e. a chattel on land) could, in theory, be prosecuted as a pollution rather than littering offence at the EPA’s discretion, with a far higher maximum penalty of $500,000 for an individual (or $15,000 for a penalty notice for a first offence).