 |
1993 - AMENDMENTS TO THE LEGISLATION
The foregoing matters led the Labor Government to amend the Environment
Protection (Alligator Rivers Region) Amendment Act 1993. The changes may
be summarised as follows:
- incorporated the OSS into the Commonwealth's Environment Protection
Agency (EPA) to reduce administrative duplication between these major
environmental monitoring agencies and to make it possible to better
achieve economies of scale;
- refined the mechanisms for consulting key stakeholders like ERA, the
NT Government, and other scientific and technical experts;
- enabled the responsible Minister to seek advice from the SS on environmental
matters outside the Region - a change advocated by the Commonwealth
Parliament's Joint Committee of Public Accounts in 1992;
- allowed the Alligator Rivers Region Research Institute (renamed the
Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist (ERISS))
to pursue research on matters outside the Region on a commercial basis
(a reform also proposed by the Joint Committee of Public Accounts) (this
fee-for-service contract research would, it was envisaged, permit the
Institute to earn up to thirty per cent of the Commonwealth's contribution
to its research program); and
- set in train an independent review of the OSS research required to
satisfy the Commonwealth's environment protection objectives in the
Region.
The following changes also occurred as a result of the amendment of the
Act:
- replacement of the Co-ordinating Committee for the Alligator Rivers
Region by two new committees - the Alligator Rivers Region Advisory
Committee (intended as a forum for information exchange between the
mining companies, the NT Government authorities and the Commonwealth,
and environmental, Aboriginal and community groups), and the Alligator
Rivers Region Technical Committee (whose role is to examine the Region's
research needs; to recommend research programs; and to devise methods
for the efficient co-ordination and integration of research);
- a reduction in the OSS budget by some twenty-five per cent over the
period 1994-96 (the OSS's financial allocation has declined from $7.5m
in 1992-93 to $6.6m in 1993-94 to $6.5m in 1994-95), at a time when
its responsibilities have expanded considerably;
- the replacement of the Uranium Export Levy by a new arrangement whereby
OSS operations are partially funded by ERA;
- re-location of the OSS headquarters to Canberra, in line with the
Supervising Scientist's additional role as Executive Director of the
EPA; and
- a one third reduction in OSS staff between 1994 and 1996 (staff numbers
have declined from 65 in June 1993 to 55 in mid-1994 to 48 in June 1995),
at a time when the OSS is being required to enlarge its role.
The new arrangements for the Supervising Scientist effectively constituted
a mainstreaming of the role. This was reinforced by appointment in 1994
of the then Supervising Scientist, Mr Barry Carbon, to head the Commonwealth
Environment Protection Agency concurrently.
|
 |
