Now lawEnvironment & Energy Introduced in the House of Representatives, 30 Oct 2025

Nature check costs can now be charged as customs duty

This small law is one of 7 bills that rewrote Australia's national nature law in 2025. It lets the government set border charges so businesses pay back the cost of checking their projects. The charges can be no more than the real cost.

Official name: Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Customs Charges Imposition) Bill 2025

Who it affects

• Businesses with projects or goods covered by the national nature law: Once the rules set charges, they may have to pay them to cover the cost of the government's nature checks.
• State and territory governments: They can be charged too. But their property cannot be taxed.
• The federal environment department: It can win back the cost of its checking work, but only up to what that work costs.
• Everyday people: Nothing changes directly for you.

Costly checks on big projects

Australia has one main national law for protecting nature. It is the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This article calls it the nature law.

Big projects that could harm protected plants, animals or places need approval under it. The federal environment department does a lot of work checking these projects.

In October 2025 the government brought in 7 bills to rewrite the nature law. They respond to a 2020 review of the law led by Professor Graeme Samuel. That review found Australia's nature was getting worse and the law was out of date.

The main bill is the Environment Protection Reform Bill 2025. It makes most of the big changes.

Three small bills let the government charge fees to cover the cost of running the law. This article is about one of them. Its name is the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (Customs Charges Imposition) Bill 2025.

The government cannot charge some of these costs as a simple fee for a service. So it needs a law that treats them as a tax. The tax is used only to pay back costs.

Why three charging bills

The Constitution is Australia's founding rule book. It says a law that makes a tax must deal with only one kind of tax.

Customs duties, excise duties and all other taxes must each be in a law of their own. Excise duties are taxes on some goods made in Australia. So the government wrote three matching bills. They are called General, Customs and Excise.

This bill covers any charge that counts as a customs duty. That is a tax linked to goods coming into or leaving Australia.

Each charge can only be valid under one of the three laws. The government's notes on the bills say this stops anyone paying twice for the same work.

What charges cover and cost

The bill lets charges be set for work linked to running the nature law. The bill itself does not list any charges or amounts.

These will be set later in detailed rules. The government can write those rules without a new vote in Parliament. The Governor-General, the King's stand-in, signs them.

A charge can be a flat amount. It can also be a way of working it out, such as by size or by the hour. One task can have several charges. Or one charge can cover several tasks.

There is a limit. Before a charge is set, the Environment Minister must be sure it will win back no more than the likely cost to the federal government. The charges only pay back what the work costs.

Say a company brings a product across the border that the nature law covers. The department does work to check it. If the fee for that work counts as a customs duty, this law is the one that allows it.

The rules can also say that some people or activities do not have to pay. The government says this lets it act in special cases. It also lets it spare a group when that makes sense.

Who the law covers

The law applies to state and territory governments, so they can be charged too. It does not apply to the federal government itself.

It does not tax any property that belongs to a state. The Constitution does not let the federal government tax state property.

It applies in Australia's island territories far from the mainland, such as the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

It also applies to people and companies outside Australia. So charges can reach businesses overseas.

The power to actually collect the money sits in the main bill. That bill also says who has to pay.

Start date

The bill was put to the House of Representatives, the larger house of Parliament, on 30 October 2025, along with the rest of the bills. The House passed it on 6 November 2025.

The Senate, the second house of Parliament, passed it on 27 November 2025.

The Governor-General signed it into law on 1 December 2025. It became Act No. 64 of 2025.

The first two sections started the next day. The parts that allow charges start on a date the government sets. If no date is set, they start 12 months after it became law.

No charge applies until the detailed rules set one.

How they voted

Its journey through Parliament

Official sources

• Bill page on aph.gov.au
• Text of the bill
• Explanatory memorandum
• Bills Digest

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