Fines to double to $10 million for NSW companies found to be causing serious environmental damage

Businesses in New South Wales are set to face steeper penalties for environmental crimes, with the state government warning companies will no longer be able to treat fines as “the cost of doing business”. 

Under major reforms to the state’s environmental protection laws, financial penalties for companies and individuals will double, offenders could be ‘named and shamed’, and product recall powers will be introduced for materials that may contain harmful substances. 

For serious ‘Tier 1’, serious offences, maximum penalties will double to $10 million for companies and $2 million for individuals. 

Companies will face maximum penalties of $4 million for asbestos-related offences, up from $2 million, while individuals will face fines of up to $1 million.

Fines for illegal dumping will increase to $50,000 for companies and $25,000 for individuals, while other on-the-spot fines for companies and individuals will also double. 

People and corporations caught littering small items in public places will face on-the-spot fines of $160.

The NSW environmental regulator will also be given the ability to publicly ‘name and shame’ companies for poor environmental practices and to recall potentially contaminated materials. 

The proposed changes, set to be introduced via a legislative amendment today, will represent the first increase for most of NSW’s environmental penalties since 2005. 

They come after the discovery of traces of bonded asbestos in mulch around a children’s playground at Rozelle Parklands in inner-city Sydney in January. The same fragments were then discovered at 75 other locations. 

The state’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) is reportedly in the final stages of investigating the mulch contamination scandal, which the government says is “the biggest in the EPA’s history”.

The reforms announced today represent the biggest strengthening of environmental regulation in NSW since the EPA was established in 1991, said Minister for Environment and Heritage Penny Sharpe. 

“The events of the past two months have shown the urgent need to reform environment protection laws and increase penalties,” she said in a statement on Thursday. 

“Penalties are being ramped up to reflect the risk of harm and disruption to the environment and the community, and for those doing the wrong thing, the fine will no longer just be the cost of doing business.”