Fixing Australia’s broken environmental laws must be the first step in improving productivity | Ken Henry

There is no chance of Australia becoming more economic resilient if we don't have robust national laws that set clear environmental standards

• One Big Idea is a new series on how to transform Australia's economy ahead of Jim Chalmers' economic roundtable

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

We must reform Australia's broken national environment laws, as they have failed to protect the environment. Projects critical to our future prosperity are bogged down in slow, opaque, duplicative and contested environmental planning and approvals processes based on poor information, and mired in administrative complexity.