As the calendar page turns to the new year, Western Australia enters a fresh chapter for major projects with the new State Development Bill set to come into effect.
The Bill passed State Parliament in December and is designed to cut red tape, accelerate investment and streamline approvals for strategic projects without compromising environmental or cultural safeguards.
So how will this play out?
Industry groups have welcomed the bipartisan support, accelerated approvals process and certainty for investors.
“Passage of the State Development Bill means we’re entering 2026 with the wind in our sails,” Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA CEO Aaron Morey said.
“Having our major political parties on the same page on legislation like this enhances Western Australia’s reputation as a stable and reliable trade partner.”
The Association of Mining and Exploration Companies has described it as “a positive for industry”.
The legislation gives huge power to the State Development Minister, currently Premier Roger Cook, to push through projects deemed “high priority”, which has concerned environmental groups and others including the Law Society of WA.
Greens MLC Dr Brad Pettitt said unfortunately the Labor-Liberals deal meant the Bill was rushed through but he was happy the Greens had negotiated a five-year review clause.
“It’s disappointing this government is now paving the way for fast-tracking uranium mining and even nuclear power without proper environmental protections,” he said.
The government has said the Act will bring WA in line with South Australia and the Northern Territory, which recently introduced similar reforms to attract investment and deliver major infrastructure – and Queensland, which has long-standing Coordinator General powers.
But it’s been described as forming part of “a broader – and troubling – global trend” by an independent Australian think tank.
The Centre for Public Integrity said fast-tracking frameworks, such as the One Canadian Economy Act, had accelerated infrastructure delivery and streamlined approvals “but often at the expense of transparent and accountable decision-making, Indigenous rights and environmental oversight”.
“In such regimes, powerful industry interests are further enabled to shape outcomes because the very regulatory structures designed to provide checks and balances are being sidelined to prioritise speed over scrutiny,” it said in a November research paper on the State Development Bill.
The same month, the WA Law Society told the premier in a letter that the overall decision-making discretion in the Bill was subjective and lacked objective criteria and transparency.
“For the Society’s members and other legal practitioners practising in this area, the wide discretionary nature of the powers conferred on Ministers and the Coordinator-General by the Bill, means it will be difficult to give accurate advice on the practical application of the legislation to clients on any side of proposed developments,” president Gary Mack wrote.
Having passed parliament, the Bill was awaiting official assent by the WA Governor Chris Dawson at the time of writing.
The government has flagged the opportunity for critical minerals and “clean downstream products like green iron” under the new laws.
As for which major project will be the first to test the new framework, only time will tell – but it’s bound to attract public scrutiny.
