Environmentalists have warned the Morrison government's attempts to slash green tape is "code" for lowering environmental protections.
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But the minister in charge of the Coalition's congestion busting said the changes would make it more efficient to get projects up and running, not reduce standards.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week announced an online portal would be created for approvals in collaboration with the Western Australian government, as the first step towards a nationally consistent system.
He said approval times for major projects like mines and roads could be reduced by between six and 18 months by streamlining environmental approval processes.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley said on Thursday the portal would give communities and environmental groups greater transparency over the progress of major projects.
She said a biodiversity database that will be co-developed by resources companies BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue would provide "a baseline that can be used by government to better measure conservation outcomes".
"The partnership will lay the foundation for a national system that will reduce the current 3.5 year time frame taken to assess major projects and the estimated $300 million cost to the economy, while maintaining all safeguards under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act," Ms Ley said.
"At the same time, we are investing $25 million in reducing unnecessary delays within the existing assessment system, including the establishment of a major projects team to ensure assessments can be completed efficiently and thoroughly in accordance with the Act."
But Conservation Council ACT executive director Helen Oakey said it was not the time to be reducing environmental protections.
"What's important when considering changes to national environment laws is that our environment is protected. Using technology to modernise and speed up processes isn't in itself a problem, but the idea of 'fast-tracking' and 'simplifying' environmental approvals is generally code for lowering environmental protections," Ms Oakey said.
"It's clear that in Australia that's not what we need to be doing. Scientists have recently warned that Australia is facing an extinction crisis."
If anything, Australia needed stronger environmental laws to stop further land clearing, protect endangered animals and prevent "climate-polluting" projects from going ahead, Ms Oakey said,
Stronger enforcement of existing laws was also essential, she said.
"If Scott Morrison is talking about making environmental approvals quicker and easier for well-resourced, big mining companies, then people who care about protecting our planet should be very concerned," Ms Oakey said.
Greens environment spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said the changes confirmed her fears that an ongoing review of environment and biodiversity laws "will be all about making life easier for his big Business mates and big polluters rather than improving protections for the environment".
However Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister Ben Morton, who is leading the charge on deregulation on behalf of the Coalition, said those concerns were "invalid".
"What we've announced is to have a single online portal for applications for both federal and state approval processes. That doesn't take away, that doesn't change what's being assessed. It just makes the application process much more efficient," Mr Morton said.
"That is something that would benefit everybody that's involved, whether you're the proponent or an environmental organisation who is running the ruler over the proposals they're seeing through the process. It's about efficiency, not about changing those particular standards."
Mr Morton also said it was "obscure" to criticise companies like BHP for their involvement in the portal.
"We should welcome their commitment to release their commercial studies and biodiversity data to be available publicly online," Mr Morton said.
"It would be these companies combined that I would assume would have a greater collection of biodiversity data than individual environmental organisations."
Mr Morton said biodiversity studies were a "pretty cut and dried set of information".
"The flora and fauna either exists or it doesn't. To suggest it's been manipulated in some way is mischievous," Mr Morton said.
