List of recommendations

Recommendation 1

6.36The committee recommends that a revised draft National Environmental Standard for Matters of National Environmental Significance be released for further public consultation.

Recommendation 2

6.37The committee recommends that a revised draft National Environmental Standard for Environmental Offsets and the proposed components of any offsets calculator be released for further public consultation.

Recommendation 3

6.38The committee recommends that the statement of reasons provided for a decision under the amended Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 should provide sufficient detail to permit any interested parties to understand the legal, scientific and factual basis of the decision and be drafted in plain English language.

Recommendation 4

6.39The committee recommends that the Minister for the Environment and Water issue principles or guidance as to the circumstances, relevant factors, and / or thresholds that will inform and guide the application of the national interest exemption and the national interest approval pathway under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

Recommendation 5

6.40The committee recommends that the National Environmental Standards should facilitate clear, consistent, timely, and effective decision-making under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and to provide clear standards and benchmarks to allow the National Environmental Protection Agency to enforce compliance.

Recommendation 6

6.41The committee recommends that a consistent approach should be developed for Key Threatening Processes to provide clear guidance on identifying, listing, and classifying key threats, the development of threat abatement plans, and monitoring and reporting on threat and abatement progress, as well as processes for review.

Recommendation 7

6.42The committee recommends that the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water prepare a document that identifies and sets out the priority and relationship of the various statements, guidance documents, policy papers, and other elements that guide and inform decision-making under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

Recommendation 8

6.43The committee recommends that any policy papers prepared to supplement National Environmental Standards should include the intended or anticipated application to case studies or examples.

Recommendation 9

6.44The committee recommends that the Restoration Contributions Holder should outline the principles to be applied and process to be followed in assessing and calculating the quantum required to offset relevant impacts (including an offset calculator) as soon as possible.

Recommendation 10

6.45The committee recommends that the State of the Environment Report should report on the enduring conservation outcomes and impact achieved through offset and restoration initiatives undertaken by proponents and the Restoration Contributions Holder, including outlining where conservation outcomes have not been achieved and the status of any offset initiatives waiting to be secured.

Recommendation 11

6.46The committee recommends that the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water should engage in further public consultation about the appropriate timing, staging, calculation, and revision of the quantum of offset amounts to be paid by proponents to the Restoration Contribution Holder.

Recommendation 12

6.47The committee recommends that the revised National Environmental Standard for Environmental Offsets should incorporate feedback about:

-(a) the way in which the proposed maintenance periods (from 25 to 100 years) will be implemented and monitored and the appropriateness of these periods;

-(b) how the maintenance periods will be aligned and administered in relation to state Crown leases of varying lengths; and

-(c) how the management rules will accommodate and apply to self-sustaining offset outcomes.

Recommendation 13

6.48The committee recommends that the draft National Environmental Standard for Environmental Offsets should provide clear and detailed guidance on the availability of non-standard offsets, clarify whether offsets can be deemed capable of commencement prior to the action, and clarify the nature, scope and application (and any variance) of the ‘like-for-like’ offset rule.

Recommendation 14

6.49The committee recommends that the suite of National Environmental Standards be urgently progressed.