WA launches one-stop environmental assessments

The Western Australia Department of Water and Environmental Regulation has developed a new one-stop-shop online service for water and environmental assessments and approvals.

Project applicants requiring environmental and water approvals can now complete the process through a single contact point.

Internal coordination has also been improved to cut down on the time taken to approve an application and provide a better service for applicants.

The move follows the merger of the state’s departments of Water and Environmental Regulation and the Office of the Environmental Protection Authority in July last year. It forms part of the state government’s public sector reform platform, which is designed to improve customer access to government services and overall response times.

“To drive economic growth in WA, we need to make it easier for the public and industry to do business with government departments. That is why we amalgamated the various departments in July 2017 and are now improving the approvals process to deliver a better customer experience,” Water Minister Dave Kelly said.

“Previously industry would have had to approach potentially three different agencies ... to ascertain what environmental approvals they would require for their project. But now with this new online one-stop shop, all the information they require is at their fingertips.”

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/kaymotec

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