Posted on August 21, 2026 by Liam Mulligan and Tim Lawson 6

ALERT: Suite of National Environmental Protection Standards Introduced under the EPBC Act

On 21 August 2026, the Federal Government declared the commencement of four new National Environmental Protection Standards (NES) under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act). The new NES comprise of the:

• National Environmental Standard (Matters of National Environmental Significance) 2026
• National Environmental Standard (Environmental Offsets) 2026
• National Environmental Standard (Data and Information) 2026
• National Environmental Standard (Community Engagement) 2026

The NES are a key feature of the suite of reforms introduced to the EPBC Act after the passing of the Environment Protection Reform Bill on 28 November 2025. As discussed in our earlier post here, proponents are required to have regard to these NES when designing and planning actions to meet EPBC Act requirements.

Of particular relevance to the environmental planning and assessment space are the prescribed principles of the NES on environmental “offset activities” and matters of environmental significance. In relation to “offset activities”:

• An offset activity must be feasible.
• An offset activity must be securely protected.
• An offset activity must provide a tangible benefit to the affected protected matter.
• There must be a high level of confidence that an offset activity will deliver a measurable improvement to the affected protected matter relative to the relevant offset site baseline for the affected protected matter.
• An offset activity must be likely to deliver an additional benefit to the affected protected matter that would not have otherwise occurred.
• An offset activity must compensate for the damage that will or may be caused by a residual significant impact of an action or class of actions on the affected protected matter by delivering a like-for-like result for that protected matter.
• An offset activity must be located in an area that is relevant to the affected protected matter.
• An offset activity that will be used to compensate for the damage that will or may be caused by a residual significant impact of an action or class of actions on the affected protected matter must be secured and registered, and management of the offset activity must have commenced, before the relevant residual significant impact occurs.

In relation to matters of environmental significance:

• An action or a class of actions must be designed having regard to the mitigation hierarchy, being 1) avoidance, 2) mitigation, 3) repair and 4) offset.
• In considering the nature, extent or severity of an impact on a protected matter, to the extent relevant, regard must be had to the context in which the impact might occur.
• Compensation for a residual significant impact must only be considered after the prior steps in the mitigation hierarchy (avoidance, mitigation and repair) have been reasonably exhausted.
• A proposal for an action or class of actions must be supported by appropriate data and information regarding the nature and scope of potential impacts of the action or class of actions on protected matters.

We anticipate providing further blogs on this topic as the influence of the NES on development assessment and planning become better understood.

If you have any questions regarding this article, please leave a comment below or contact Liam Mulligan on (02) 8235 9715 or Timothy Lawson on (02) 8235 9725.