Legislation and regulations

Quarry Rehabilitation Bonds Review Panel

The Quarry Rehabilitation Bonds Review Panel was set up in June 2025 to advise the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action (DEECA) on how to improve rehabilitation bond settings for the quarry sector.

Panel members

Ms Cheryl Batagol PSM chaired the panel. The panel included members independent of the Victorian Government and DEECA. Members included industry representatives with quarry sector experience, and experts in insurance, risk and economics.

Panel findings

The panel reviewed Victoria’s policies, regulations and laws. It also considered models used in other Australian jurisdictions. The panel found that:

  1. Rehabilitation bond settings do not reflect the liability risk to the state.
  2. Rehabilitation bond settings are economically inefficient and impact the commercial viability of quarry operators
  3. The bond calculator requirements are overly burdensome.
  4. Rehabilitation bond settings do not efficiently incentivise rehabilitation.

Panel recommendations

The recommendations aim to balance 2 priorities: protecting the state from financial risk and supporting investment in the quarry sector.

  • Recommendation 1: Replace the existing rehabilitation bond system with a risk-based pooled funding scheme.
  • Recommendation 2: Simplify the Bond Calculator and reflect risk mitigators.
  • Recommendation 3: Set bond amounts to reflect the prospective disturbance over shorter time periods.
  • Recommendation 4: Expand the variety of approved bond forms.

Next steps

The Department will make the following immediate changes:

  1. Publish a simplified version of the standard bond calculator for quarries and applying risk-based cost rates.
  2. Implement the Quarry Rehabilitation Performance Incentive Scheme. This scheme allows up to a 20% reduction in the final bond amount. Quarry operators must have an updated rehabilitation plan, carry out progressive rehabilitation and show a low risk of default.
  3. Increase the cash bond limit to $100,000 (currently $50,000). Cash bonds are an alternative to bank guarantees.

The department will provide further advice to government in relation to recommendation 1 and continue to engage with relevant stakeholders on the actions taken in response to the report’s recommendations.

Page last updated: 03 Jun 2026