"Delayed - I sold, not worth the risk here, seems to keep getting pushed back. I don't like it."
From the CEO presentation at an investment conference a month ago on 21 June talking about EPBC approval quoted from the transcript: "we're still waiting for the last environmental approval from the Federal group but we've been told we should be uh receiving news on that in the next uh in the next two months". Link here. So, nothing too out of the ordinary with the 'delay' as likely expected as has only been a month since he said that.
Why the delays? From an audit of EPBC processes done in 2020 of the 19 years the act has been in operation (link here) found delays were the norm with most decisions not made in the statutory timeframes. Reasons for delays include: the department not considering that it has satisfactory information to assess the proposed action, administrative delays, disagreement between the department and the regulated entity over proposed conditions, and delays in state or territory approvals where actions are also subject to state or territory approval requirements.
