|
Navigation: Previous Page | Contents | Next Page
Chapter 1 - Background
Referral and conduct of the inquiry
1.1
On 12 October 2006, the House of Representatives introduced the
Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Bill 2006 (the Bill). A lengthy explanatory
memorandum accompanied the Bill.
1.2
The provisions of the bill were referred to the Senate Standing
Committee on Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts,
for inquiry and report by 17 November 2006.
1.3
On 18 October 2006, the Senate granted an extension of time to
report until 21 November 2006.
1.4
The committee corresponded with a large number of individuals, environment
and heritage departments and agencies, industry bodies and other key
stakeholders, and invited them to provide a submission to the committee's
inquiry.
1.5
In accordance with its usual practice, the committee also sought public
comment by advertising the inquiry in The Australian on Tuesday 16 October 2006, calling for submissions by Friday 27 October 2006.
1.6
The committee received 138 submissions to its inquiry (see Appendix 1).
1.7
The committee held two public hearings in Canberra; on Friday 3 November 2006 and Monday 6 November 2006. The committee heard evidence from a
number of witnesses, including representatives of key environment and heritage
protection groups and natural resource managers, industry representatives, and
government departments including the Department of Environment and Heritage. A complete
list of witnesses is provided at Appendix 2.
1.8
A number of questions were placed on notice at the hearing. Those
questions and responses are at Appendix 3.
1.9
Published submissions and the Hansard of the committee's hearings
are tabled with this report, together with supplementary material provided to
it following the committee's hearings. Submissions and transcripts of the committee's
hearings are available on the Parliament's internet site at www.aph.gov.au.
Acknowledgements
1.10
The committee acknowledges the assistance and contribution made to its
inquiry by those who prepared and provided written and oral submissions to the
inquiry. Their work has been of considerable assistance to the committee,
particularly given the timeframe for the inquiry.
Scope of the report
1.11
The inquiry focused on the provisions of the Environment and Heritage
Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2006. This bill makes a series of amendments
to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
(the Act) and related Acts.
1.12
According to the explanatory memorandum, the bill proposes to amend the Act
to make it more efficient and effective, to allow for the use of more strategic
approaches and to provide greater certainty in decision making.
1.13
In particular the bill:
- reduces processing time and costs for development interests;
- provides an enhanced ability to deal with large scale projects
and give priority attention to projects of national importance through the use
of strategic assessment and approvals approaches and putting in place measures
to enable developers to avoid the impacts on the matters of National Environmental
Significance protected by the Act;
- enables a better focus on protecting threatened species and
ecological communities and heritage places that are of real national
importance; and
- clarifies and strengthens the enforcement provisions of the Act.[1]
1.14
The explanatory memorandum stated that these changes would be made
without weakening the protection that the Act provides for Australia's
biodiversity and heritage.
1.15
This report addresses the various aspects of the bill that have been
raised as issues of interest or concern, and that have been examined during
this inquiry by the committee.
1.16
The individual components have been separated to enable discussion of
the key issues. Chapter 1 provides background and overview of the bill.
Chapter 2 considers the provisions relating to proposed development
actions. Chapter 3 examines the changes in relation to heritage listings
and nominations. Chapter 4 focuses on a range of new enforcement and
penalties provisions. Chapter 5 considers the changes made to threatened
species and ecological communities. Chapter 6 deals with other issues raised
during the inquiry.
Background to the bill
1.17
The Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Bill amends the Environment
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to refine the provisions
of the Act as it currently exists.
1.18
The Act provides a comprehensive national approach to environmental
protection that deals with a wide range of environment and heritage issues, and
clarifies the linkages between the Australian Government and state and
territory governments by providing mechanisms for consultation and cooperation
between those governments.
1.19
Practical application of the Act over the last six years has revealed
that there are ways in which the operation of the Act can be improved to
optimise its efficiency while maintaining and enhancing its environmental
effectiveness, and the purpose of the Bill is largely to introduce increased
efficiencies.[2]
1.20
Each year since the Act's inception the Department of the Environment
and Heritage has carried out a review of the operation of the Act and has
published an annual report on its findings.[3]
This report shows that generally, the Act appears to be working well to achieve
the purposes for which the legislation was intended.
1.21
Under the Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Bill, the same
basic framework and general approach would be maintained as currently exists
under the Act, whilst at the same time strengthening and/or streamlining the various
provisions of the Act which have been shown to need some adjustment.
1.22
The bill aims to make improvements in four distinct areas: streamlining
administration of the Act for efficiency and effectiveness, thereby cutting
'red tape' in government; being more strategic and flexible in directing Australian
Government action on the environment; strengthening compliance with, and
enforcement of, the Act; and implementing a range of minor amendments needed to
overcome some technical deficiencies in the Act.[4]
1.23
Therefore, the purpose of the proposed amendments is to greatly improve
the operation of existing provisions of the Act.
Outline of the bill
1.24
The Bill consists of two schedules which amend the Environment
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Schedule 1 consists of the
amendment of Acts, while Schedule 2 contains application, saving and
transitional provisions.
1.25
The explanatory memorandum states in its regulation impact statement
that the bill addresses the following principal issues through the proposed
amendments:
- inefficient, onerous or unnecessary processes with limited
environmental outcomes;
- insufficient incentives and statutory constraints on strategic
approaches;
- duplicative and inconsistent processes;
-
insufficient transparency and risks to the environment;
- insufficient flexibility and scope;
- ambiguities, anomalies or lack of certainty;
- potential for delay or frustration of processes; and
- technical and other issues.[5]
1.26
The explanatory memorandum's impact analysis (costs and benefits) identifies
the main groups affected by or having an interest in the problem and its
proposed solutions as being;
- companies, partnerships or individuals undertaking development
actions or other actions with impacts on the environment;
- Australian Government agencies;
- state and territory governments and local government; and
- environment and heritage groups.[6]
1.27
The impact analysis also outlines beneficial impacts of the proposed
amendments to the Act in the following areas:
- referral, assessment and approvals processes;
- protected species provisions;
- fisheries provisions;
- wildlife trade provisions;
- heritage provisions; and
- protected areas provisions.[7]
1.28
Additionally, the impact analysis points out that costs associated with
the proposed amendments to the Act are generally limited to implementation
costs for the Australian Government, and minor costs associated with the need
for stakeholders to become familiar with the new arrangements.
1.29
While implementation costs will generally be limited, it should also be
noted that transitional costs associated with the amendments may carry through
for some time, as efficiencies would not be realised immediately, but would
occur as each subsequent issue was dealt with on a case by case basis.[8]
1.30
Items 1 to 835 in Schedule 1 of the bill amend numerous sections of the Environment
Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. Many of these items are
of a minor technical nature only, however a number of items may have somewhat
more of an impact, and these will be individually identified and discussed later
in this report.
1.31
Items 836 to 869 in Schedule 1 amend other related Acts, including the Australian
Heritage Council Act 2003, the Environment and Heritage Protection Act
(No. 1) 2003, the Environment Protection (Alligator Rivers Region) Act
1978, the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping Act) 1981, and the Migration
Act 1958.
1.32
Items 1 to 58 in Schedule 2 incorporate application, saving and
transitional provisions of the bill and make a number of technical amendments
to the Act in this regard.
1.33
The Department of the Environment and Heritage has commenced
preparations for the implementation of the proposed amendments to the Act, as
well as commenced preparation of information products explaining the amendments
to external stakeholders. It has been advised that the need to implement
the proposed amendments in a number of stages is not necessary, as the majority
of the amendments simply involve the refinement of existing provisions.[9]
General position on the proposed amendments
1.34
Submissions to the inquiry were generally supportive of the provisions of
the bill to streamline processes and reduce unnecessary administrative burdens
under the existing Act.
1.35
While a variety of concerns were raised by witnesses about various
aspects of the bill, and these will be discussed later in this report, the
committee believes that these concerns must be weighed up against the evidence
presented by 6 years of practical application of the existing provisions of the
Act which has highlighted areas where the legislation needs a measure of fine
tuning.
1.36
The committee generally accepts the Government's rationale and
objectives in putting forward this legislation, while noting some areas of
concern, as outlined in subsequent chapters of this report.
Navigation: Previous Page | Contents | Next Page
Comments to: web.senate@aph.gov.au
Last reviewed 21 November 2006 by the Senate Web Administrator
© Commonwealth of Australia
Parliament of Australia Web Site Privacy Statement
Images courtesy of AUSPIC
|
