EPA gets new Terrace digs

A new hub for environmental approvals opened in the Perth CBD will end the need for project proponents to drive out to the northern suburbs for meetings with bureaucrats.

The state government on Tuesday morning confirmed it had signed a circa-$200,000-per-year lease for floorspace on level eight of the Perpetual Corporate Trust-owned 66 St Georges Terrace building next to London Court.

Dubbed an Environmental Protection Authority hub, the office will be used by agency staff for meetings with project proponents and other government stakeholders.

The EPA’s Joondalup office will be retained.

Environment Minister Reece Whitby said the floorspace had been snapped up for an attractive price.

“It is a very good time to lease property in Perth,” he said.

“The prices are well down historically.

“I dare say that value will be returned to the state many times over in terms of the new efficiencies we can get into the processes.”

The move was foreshadowed in late 2023 when a review into the slow environmental approvals process called for the EPA to be moved into the Perth CBD.

That decision would bring public servants responsible for project approvals closer to their proponents, many of which have offices on St Georges Terrace or in West Perth.

It is not the first time the state government has made moves to keep public servants close to the Perth CBD.

The state government in 2017 scrapped a $28.9 million plan to move 100 Parks and Wildlife staff from Kensington to a new office in Bunbury after tenders had already been awarded by the former Barnett government two months prior to the election.

Mr Whitby said decentralisation of government offices needed to be balanced with the realities of doing business.

“Traveling around can eat a lot of your day up and cut into productivity,” he said.

“This was a recommendation that came from our report, but it also came from the business community.

“I don't think we should chuck away the idea that it is not a good idea to have some decentralization, you've got to have a balance.”

 Some 800 EPA and Department of Water and Environmental Regulation staff were moved to Joondalup in 2019 under a plan set in motion by the Barnett government.