Seizing the opportunity: Delivering better outcomes from regulatory reform

In late 2025, the Australian Parliament passed major changes to Australia’s environmental laws. More than five years after Professor Graeme Samuel handed down his independent review describing the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act as outdated and ineffective, the reforms establish a National Environmental Protection Agency and make substantial revisions to the EPBC Act including providing for National Environmental Standards.

Legislation is only as good as its implementation. How can environmental practitioners seize the opportunity provided by these reforms and use them to deliver better environmental outcomes? This will be the focus of the 2026 Impact Assessment Symposium to be held in the heart of government in Canberra. The symposium will provide practitioners with the knowledge and skills to understand:

  *   How the reforms can work to improve environmental outcomes

  *   How practitioners can use the reforms to deliver better outcomes – to go above and beyond regulatory compliance.

The symposium will include insights from leading practitioners, presentations, workshops and other interactive sessions, panel discussions and plenty of opportunities for networking.

Why You Can't Afford to Miss This Event:  

• Reframe your practice with an outcomes first approach that maintains rigour while delivering meaningful results
• Discover practical methods to evaluate and enhance IA effectiveness beyond mere speed metrics 
• Defend critical elements like community engagement from efficiency-driven cuts by demonstrating their value to outcomes 
• Connect with thought leaders who are successfully balancing process improvements with outcome integrity 
• Take home actionable strategies to implement outcome-focused approaches in your organisation immediately.

Secure your place today to be part of redefining excellence in Impact Assessment. 

At this years' conference we are calling for abstract submissions for both spoken presentations and posters. There will be a dedicated poster session, incorporating the networking event, to be held at the end of day one on Thursday 3 September 2026.

Please indicate your presentation preference in the form below.

Abstracts from both EIANZ members and non-members are invited on the following sub-themes: 

Sub-theme 1 | Achieving efficient, high-quality assessments and approvals under the new streamlined assessment pathway and the reformed bilateral agreement

Sub-theme 2 | Using the reforms to drive innovation and quality in identifying and evaluating environmental and social impacts

Sub-theme 3 | Using the mitigation hierarchy to go beyond compliance

Sub-theme 4 | Making effective use of regional planning

For a more detailed explanation on the symposium sub-themes please review the document here >

Abstracts must be no more than 300 words and be accompanied by a presenter biography of no more than 300 words.

The closing date for abstract submissions is Friday 22 May 2026. We are particularly keen to hear from early career professionals and First Nations peoples. 

We plan to notify presenters whether their abstract has been accepted by Friday 5 June 2026. 

We are likely to receive more abstracts than we can accommodate in the program. Priority will be given to abstracts that present truly innovative practice and/or provide valuable learnings or tools for other practitioners who will attend the symposium.

Important note:

Presenters will receive the early bird EIANZ member rate to attend. Please make sure it is the presenter that submits the abstract so that the correct pricing is applied to the speaker profile.

Conference dates: 
Thursday 3 September to Friday 4 September 2026 

Conference location:
Hotel Realm
18 National Circuit 
Barton, ACT

If you are an EIANZ member, please ensure you have logged into the website prior to submitting your abstract or session proposal.

Required fields are marked with an asterisk (*).

Abstracts are welcome from both EIANZ members and non-members. Please follow these guidelines in submitting your abstract:

• Include the full names, titles and affiliations for all presenters
• The contact details of the primary presenters
• Preferred sub-theme
• Abstract title (maximum 120 characters)
• Abstract to be no more than 300 words (excluding names, titles and affiliations)
• The use of abbreviations and acronyms should be kept to a minimum; and

The closing day for abstract submissions is Friday 22 May 2026.

Please provide an abstract in the text field below. Abstracts are to be a maximum of 300 words in length.

Please provide a short professional biography of the presenter(s). Biographies should be no more than 300 words in length. 

If not previously provided, please attach profile photo(s) of the author(s) who will be presenting at the conference if this abstract or session proposal is accepted

At the conclusion of the conference we are always asked by delegates if it is possible to get a copy of the presenters slides. If you consent we can make the slide deck available as a PDF which will be a link to your speaker profile in the interactive program. Please indicate below if you consent to your presentation slides being made available.