New Energy Bulletin: The Product Lifecycle Responsibility Bill 2025

On 18 March 2025, the New South Wales Government introduced the Product Lifecycle Responsibility Bill 2025 (the Bill) into Parliament.

Legislative objectives and function

The objectives of the Bill are:

1. “to minimise the impact that products have on human health and the environment, throughout the lifecycle of the products,
2. to ensure that persons who supply a product are responsible for minimising the potential harm of what is supplied,
3. to support material circularity through design, production, use, re‑use, collection, recycling, reprocessing and end-of-life management,
4. to promote and support the principles of a circular economy.”¹

To realise these objectives, the Bill has various key functions, including:

1. establishing a product stewardship framework for the brand owners of regulated products;²
2. establishing recording keeping and reporting requirements for brand owners and product stewardship organisations in relation to regulated products;³ and
3. setting out enforcement and regulatory controls for various offences related to the above.⁴

The Bill also empowers the Minister to set product stewardship targets and prescribe, by regulation, requirements relating to the entirety of a product life cycle, from development, design, assembly, supply, recycling or disposal (product stewardship requirement).⁵ The regulations may also declare that a product stewardship requirement is a “safety requirement”, which carry maximum penalties as discussed further below.⁶

Offences and penalties

Offences carry significant penalties, with a particular focus on penalties for noncompliance with safety requirements.⁷ Such offences carry a maximum penalty of $880,000 for corporations and $220,000 for individuals.⁸ In addition to deterring safety noncompliance, the Bill, by encompassing entire product life cycles, prevents designers and producers from distancing themselves from recycling responsibilities and any long-term environmental harms associated with their products.

Future outlook

The Hon. Penny Sharpe highlighted in the Bill’s second reading speech that the Bill ‘is futureproofed to handle emerging environmental issues’ as a ‘nation-leading reform’.⁹ As noted in the ministerial release, the Bill gives the ‘NSW Government the strongest powers in the country to ensure suppliers take accountability’ for all products that they sell, across the entire lifecycle.¹⁰

New South Wales is paving the way for product lifecycle responsibility with this nation leading Bill, setting a precedent for other states and territories to follow. This legislation reflects the NSW Government’s dedication to proactive and sustainable regulatory reform, ensuring a safer and more resilient future for all.

Further information can be found in the explanatory notes for the Bill, the introduction of the Bill to Parliament and the Parliamentary Bill page.

The Hamilton Locke team advises across the energy project life cycle – from project development, grid connection, financing, and construction, including the buying and selling of development and operating projects. For more information, please contact Matt Baumgurtel.

¹Product Lifestyle Responsibility Bill 2025 (NSW) cl 3(1).

²Ibid, cl 8.

³Ibid, cl 11.

⁴Ibid, cl 10.

⁵Ibid, cl 8.

⁶Ibid.

⁷New South Wales, Parliamentary Debates, Legislative Council, 18 March 2025, 57 (Penny Sharpe).

⁸Ibid, 57.

⁹Ibid, 55.

¹⁰Minister for Environment and Heritage (NSW), NSW Leads the way: first state to regulate batteries (Ministerial release, 20 March 2025).