Western Australia's (WA) government has introduced legislation to streamline permitting processes for some renewable generation, "green" iron, and manufacturing projects to reduce the state's coal reliance.
The state government designed the State Development Bill to help WA reduce its reliance on coal faster than any other Australian state, it said on 8 September. The legislation will also support critical mineral projects, it added.
State authorities plan to delegate some permitting power to a co-ordinator general, who will work across agencies to support priority projects and development areas using the legislation. The co-ordinator general will have a range of powers, including the ability to set approval deadlines.
But the State Development Bill is not going to impact the independence of WA's Environmental Protection Authority or the state's cultural heritage protections, the government said.
The co-ordinator general will also only support a small number of infrastructure or capital-intensive projects. Most WA developments will continue to follow existing permitting processes, which the state government plans to revise in 2026.
Industry groups are supportive of the proposed changes. The Chamber of Minerals and Energy WA (CME) — a group representing BP, oil and gas producer Woodside Energy, iron ore producer Fortescue, and others — strongly supports the WA government playing a bigger role co-ordinating approvals related to the state's energy transition, it said on 9 September.
Fortescue in June applied for permission to build a 2.1GW wind farm and a 220kV transmission line to support decarbonisation work at its Iron Bridge magnetite mine. It plans to more than double its investment in decarbonisation work over the 2025-26 financial year to 30 June.
Multiple industrial consortiums are also developing lower-emission iron projects in the state with government support. The NeoSmelt consortium — including producers BHP, Rio Tinto, BlueScope, Mitsui, and Woodside Energy — plans to build a 30,000–40,000 t/yr natural gas-based direct reduction iron plant in WA.
South Korean producer Posco and Australian developer Port Hedland Iron also got state environmental approval to build the 2mn t/yr hot briquette iron Port Hedland project in August.
