Victoria moves to give its environment watchdog teeth with $45m overhaul

Proposed reforms to Environmental Protection Agency a bid to make regulator more proactive in prosecuting companies for environmental breaches

The Victorian government has announced a $45m overhaul of the Environmental Protection Agency in a bid to make the regulator more proactive in prosecuting companies for environmental breaches.

The new model would see the Andrews government adopt 40 of the 48 recommendations made in 10-month-long review into the EPA, which found it was too slow to respond to reported breaches and lacked the resources to effectively enforce conditions imposed on industry and developers.