Federal watchdog planned to target environmental damage

A national watchdog will set its sights on businesses found to have spoilt the environment in breach of federal laws.

Legislation setting up a national Environment Protection Agency passed the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The agency would target offences to do with hazardous waste, sea dumping, air quality and wildlife trafficking, and have the ability to impose fines of up to $780 million for serious intentional breaches.

The national body would be able to issue stop-work orders and audit businesses to ensure they comply with environmental laws.

The suite of reforms would require environmental progress to be "nature positive", the first time any country has legislated the term.

Nature positive has been defined as an improvement to the diversity, abundance and resilience of an ecosystem, based on a previous baseline.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said the reforms were crucial to ensuring natural habitats would be protected in years to come.

"This stage of the reform, together with significant additional government investment, will deliver stronger environmental powers, faster environmental approvals, more environmental information and greater transparency," she told parliament.

"This will create accountability for our collective national efforts to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030."

The measures include the creation of the Environment Information Agency, which would provide data to the government and the public on environmental issues.

It will be legally required to publish reports to parliament on the state of the environment every two years.

The government has set aside $100 million to speed up the process for environmental approvals.

While the laws easily passed the lower house, independent MPs took aim at the nature-positive elements.

Victorian MP Zoe Daniel said the definition for nature positive was vague and did not address concerns.

"It includes no reference to reversing the decline and restoring the populations of our native wildlife," she said.

"If Australia is to be seen as serious about restoring the damage caused to our environment by decades of weak regulatory practice, my concern is no baseline means backsliding is a real threat."

Ms Plibersek said a baseline would be determined by environmental experts and provide a reference point for natural diversity in ecosystems.

Debate on the laws will move to the Senate, with the government needing crossbench support for the legislation to pass.

However, the Greens had previously signalled the changes would do little to address environmental concerns.

Chief executive of environmental group WWF Australia Dermot O'Gorman said the national agency needed to be further strengthened upon debate in the upper house.

"This agency has the potential to be a genuine game-changer for the environment, but it must have the resources and independence to do the job properly," he said.

"It should have an independent board to prevent political interference and provide strong oversight of its regulatory powers and operation."