This bill did not become law and is no longer proceeding.
Climate, energy & environment
Large wind and solar project companies would have to lodge a bond to cover the cost of cleaning up and restoring land, sea or the environment when a project ends.
Large wind and solar projects lacked mineral-style rehabilitation bondA financial guarantee the company must put up so there is money to clean up and restore the project site if the project ends or the company fails to do the work. requirements, leaving cleanup and restoration costs for affected land, sea and environment insufficiently secured. The bill requires proponents to lodge bonds and submit rehabilitation plans so end-of-life cleanup is funded and carried out, not left to landholders.
By 2024, large wind and solar projects did not face the kind of rehabilitation bondA financial guarantee the company must put up so there is money to clean up and restore the project site if the project ends or the company fails to do the work. rules used for mining, leaving no explicit national requirement to secure the future cost of restoring affected land, sea or environment and creating uncertainty for landholders as the renewable rollout expanded. The bill responded by proposing upfront rehabilitation plans and ministerThe federal minister responsible for receiving plans, setting bond amounts and overseeing the rehabilitation process.-set bonds so cleanup costs stayed with project proponents rather than landholders, but it lapsed at the March 2025 dissolution of ParliamentThe point when Parliament ends before an election, which caused this bill to lapse before it could take effect. before those safeguards could take effect.
No significant public case against the bill is recorded so far, with the debate material here focusing instead on the risk of abandoned renewable project sites if no bond is required. The members quoted supported the proposal, and no party represented in the debate opposed it or raised a distinct substantive objection to the bill itself.
Sam Birrell MP introduced this bill. Speeches supporting it came from Nationals, LNP.
Did it become law?
No
The bill did not complete passage through Parliament.
Final passage
No final passage
The bill has not completed passage and is no longer proceeding.
Time before failure
130 days
From introduction to the final recorded step before the bill stopped proceeding
Meaning
Large wind and solar project companies would have to lodge a bond to cover the cost of cleaning up and restoring land, sea or the environment when a project ends.
The bill would apply to large-scale wind and solar installations, but it would not cover rooftop solar on homes or industrial buildings.
Energy project companies would have to give the ministerThe federal minister responsible for receiving plans, setting bond amounts and overseeing the rehabilitation process. a draft rehabilitation planThe company’s draft plan for how it will restore the land, sea or environment after the project finishes. within 30 days after the later of the project starting and the new rule commencing, unless the ministerThe federal minister responsible for receiving plans, setting bond amounts and overseeing the rehabilitation process. allows more time.
The ministerThe federal minister responsible for receiving plans, setting bond amounts and overseeing the rehabilitation process. could require a company to take out a rehabilitation bondA financial guarantee the company must put up so there is money to clean up and restore the project site if the project ends or the company fails to do the work. for a specified amount, and that bond would require the company to rehabilitate the environment in line with the approved plan.
Landholders and lessees could not be made to pay the cleanup bill for these projects.
The Bill requires those that propose that certain electricity generation proponents acquire bonds to cover the future cost of rehabilitating the land, sea and/or environment affected by the project at the conclusion of the project’s operational life. The Bill mirrors the obligations on mineral resources projects imposed at various State levels.Requiring Energy Infrastructure Providers to Obtain Rehabilitation Bonds explanatory memorandum
The types of energy projects affected by this Bill are large-scale wind turbine or solar panel installations.Requiring Energy Infrastructure Providers to Obtain Rehabilitation Bonds explanatory memorandum
the 30-day period starting on the later of the day the project starts and the day this section commences; or such longer period as the Minister allows in writingRequiring Energy Infrastructure Providers to Obtain Rehabilitation Bonds introduced bill text
direct the provider to enter into a rehabilitation bond for the plan for a specified amount ... contain, as a condition of the bond, that the provider rehabilitates the environment in accordance with the planRequiring Energy Infrastructure Providers to Obtain Rehabilitation Bonds introduced bill text
Subsection (5) makes explicit that the provider must not under any circumstance seek to impose the rehabilitation costs upon landholders or the lessees of the land.Requiring Energy Infrastructure Providers to Obtain Rehabilitation Bonds explanatory memorandum
Context
By 2024, large wind and solar projects did not face the kind of rehabilitation bondA financial guarantee the company must put up so there is money to clean up and restore the project site if the project ends or the company fails to do the work. rules used for mining, leaving no explicit national requirement to secure the future cost of restoring affected land, sea or environment and creating uncertainty for landholders as the renewable rollout expanded. The bill responded by proposing upfront rehabilitation plans and ministerThe federal minister responsible for receiving plans, setting bond amounts and overseeing the rehabilitation process.-set bonds so cleanup costs stayed with project proponents rather than landholders, but it lapsed at the March 2025 dissolution of ParliamentThe point when Parliament ends before an election, which caused this bill to lapse before it could take effect. before those safeguards could take effect.
Large renewable projects operated without mining-style rehabilitation bonds
The explanatory memorandum said large-scale wind and solar projects lacked the bond-backed end-of-life cleanup obligations already mirrored from mineral resources projects at various State levels.
Requiring Energy Infrastructure Providers to Obtain Rehabilitation Bonds explanatory memorandum ↗Regional impacts from the renewable rollout were used to justify new safeguards
In the second reading speech, the sponsor said regional communities were bearing the brunt of the renewable energy rollout and needed certainty about rehabilitation of onshore wind and solar farms at the end of their lives.
Second reading speech ↗Bill introduced to make proponents fund cleanup and restoration
The bill was introduced to require draft rehabilitation plans and allow the ministerThe federal minister responsible for receiving plans, setting bond amounts and overseeing the rehabilitation process. to set bonds for large wind and solar projects so landholders and lessees would not be left with rehabilitation costs.
Parliamentary timeline ↗Bill lapses when Parliament is dissolved
The proposal did not pass before the dissolution of ParliamentThe point when Parliament ends before an election, which caused this bill to lapse before it could take effect., so the planned bond and rehabilitation planThe company’s draft plan for how it will restore the land, sea or environment after the project finishes. regime never commenced.
Parliamentary timeline ↗Legislative route
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
Introduced and read a first time
A ministerThe federal minister responsible for receiving plans, setting bond amounts and overseeing the rehabilitation process. or sponsoring member moved the second reading, opening the main debate on the bill's purpose and principles.
Second reading moved
The bill reached this recorded parliamentary step.
Key criticism
No significant public case against the bill is recorded so far, with the debate material here focusing instead on the risk of abandoned renewable project sites if no bond is required. The members quoted supported the proposal, and no party represented in the debate opposed it or raised a distinct substantive objection to the bill itself.
Recorded concern was about weak decommissioning safeguards without the bill, not about the bill going too far.
Votes
No recorded votes were found before this bill stopped proceeding.
Parliamentary debate
Start here — lead voices
Sam Birrell supports the bill, saying renewable energy developers should have trusts, bonds or similar financial security in place so projects can be properly decommissioned and restored at the end of life.
Read in Hansard ↗Boyce supports the bill, saying it would help address the future costs of rehabilitating and decommissioning renewable energy projects and make sure landholders and companies are held to account.
Read in Hansard ↗All speeches by bloc
2 speakers · 2 support
“There's a rapid renewable energy rollout in parts of regional Australia. It affects the people who live out there, and a lot of the proponents of renewable energy in this place seem to think that those people out there don't really matter or care about what's happening to their landscape and their communities. But I think we should give more focus to those people whom these renewable energy projects affect. This bill goes towards that by ensuring that people who are setting up these renewable energy projects put in trusts, bonds or other financial mechanisms the funds required to decommission at the end of life.”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
“These are questions that have yet to be reasonably answered. This bill proposed by the member for Nicholls goes some way to addressing those issues into the future, and I fully support the bill.”Read the full speech in Hansard ↗
Record
House · Introduced and read a first time
Introduced
The bill was formally presented to the chamber and read a first time, which starts its parliamentary journey.
House · Second reading moved
Second reading opened
A ministerThe federal minister responsible for receiving plans, setting bond amounts and overseeing the rehabilitation process. or sponsoring member moved the second reading, opening the main debate on the bill's purpose and principles.
House · Lapsed at dissolution
Lapsed at dissolution
The bill reached this recorded parliamentary step.
