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Approvals Alliance to fast-track project approvals

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An innovative new service has been launched to help Western Australian infrastructure and resource projects, cut regulatory clutter to achieve project approvals in a timely and cost-effective manner.

  

The Project Approvals Alliance sees a group of WA based consultancies join forces to provide a coordinated service to project proponents hoping to take advantage of opportunities in the new boom.
Alliance services will include indigenous heritage, environmental approvals, internal and external stakeholder relations, as well as state and federal government relations. Alliance members include:
• Aquaterra: Groundwater and environmental approvals;
• Kellie Hill Consulting (KHC): indigenous heritage and native title; and
• CPR Communications & Public Relations: federal & state government, investor, community and media relations.
CPR GM Daniel Smith said, “During the last expansion, the number of approval applications from resources and infrastructure projects increased significantly. At the same time, the public sector’s capacity to manage the increased workload was diminished as an expanding private sector recruited within public sector approvals agencies. These competing pressures resulted in delays and many opportunities were lost.”
KHC MD Kellie Hill said the Alliance provided projects with the ability to quickly ramp up their approvals effort. “The new boom is on us and we are reacting to this new environment by quickly expanding our team. In fact, by engaging the Alliance, projects are gaining access to a team of more than 100 experienced approvals personnel, which can be managed through a single coordinated relationship.
Aquaterra principal environmental consultant Doug Koontz said a coordinated approach to approvals was essential, given the increasing complexity of the environmental approvals process.
“Companies are required to provide a much higher level of technical detail to satisfy various regulators, and more emphasis is being put on addressing most of the issues early in the assessment process through stakeholder consultation and detailed environmental investigations.”
Koontz, who recently served on Mines Minister Norman Moore’s review of the approvals system, said a rigourous approach to approvals was essential to establishing a realistic timeline and budget for approvals which conform to the overall project development objectives.
All three Alliance members are based in Perth, with CPR maintaining a Canberra office to manage Federal approvals such as Foreign Investment Review Board processes.
More information: www.approvalsalliance.com.au, 08 9421 1892, info@approvalsalliance.com.au
 


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