In 2020 the Governor General formalised a new Regulation (i.e. Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) (CFI) Amendment (Excluded Offsets Projects) Regulations 2020) amending the existing CFI Rule.

The new regulation adds a new provision to clause 3.37 to amend the existing water interception requirements. This change will allow new ERF projects in areas (over 600mm of rainfall) to proceed with registration if they are located in a region declared by the Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction, the Hon Angus Taylor MP, to be a region where material risks to water availability are likely to be addressed (i.e. an ‘exempt region’).

Minister Taylor declared the following 5 regions exempt: South west WA, Green Triangle (South Australian side), Northern Tasmania, North east NSW, and the South west slopes of NSW and Victoria. AFPA welcomed the announcement but also indicated that remaining regions should be rapidly declared exempt, in the first instance the Victorian side of the GT.