Name
Florence Riviere
Job title
Partner
Organisation
Pinsent Masons
Speaker biography
Florence is a Partner in the Planning & Environment team at Pinsent Masons. She is a trusted advisor with nearly 20 years’ experience advising both public and private sector clients on the energy, infrastructure and industrial sectors. She is dedicated to the efficient, strategic and streamlined planning and delivery of her clients’ projects and advises on planning and regulatory approvals, environmental assessment, land access, native title, cultural heritage, environmental compliance, contamination and incident management. Florence is also the creator and editor of 5 Minutes of Energy on a Friday, which provides her followers with a weekly overview of the energy sector in Australia
Speaking At
Presentation title
The Impact of Planning and Environmental Reform on WA's Energy Future
Presentation summary
The ‘Investing in Cheaper, Cleaner Energy and the Net Zero Transformation” Report of the Productivity Commission released in August 2025 identified lengthy approvals timeframes as one of the barriers to Australia delivering on its net zero ambition. It recommended the overhaul of Australia’s environmental laws to expedite approvals of clean energy projects. This echoed the WA Vogel-McFerran review released in 2023 which called out approvals processes as ‘overly complex, time-consuming and costly – holding back economic development without any benefit to the environment’. Since then, the long-awaited reform of the Federal Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 was finally enacted and in WA, the landmark State Development Bill 2025 was passed. What are the issues these reforms were trying to address, what do they purport to do and will they get us there? In this session, Florence will provide an overview of recent planning and environmental reforms and their likely impact on Western Australia’s energy future.
