12 October
2006 - Proposed amendments to Australia’s premier
environmental legislation, the Environment Protection
and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, were introduced
into Parliament today.
The Australian Minister for
the Environment and Heritage, Senator Ian Campbell,
said the common-sense amendments would reduce
red tape and streamline the legislation, while
improving the ongoing protection of Australia’s
unique natural, cultural and Indigenous heritage.
“The EPBC Act is world-class
legislation which has delivered major environmental
achievements over the last six years but there
is room to make the Act even better,” Senator
Campbell said.
“The Australian Government is
streamlining the Act with a series of amendments
that will improve environmental protection by
focusing more on outcomes than process while maintaining
our strong commitment to protecting Australia’s
unique and iconic natural, cultural and Indigenous
heritage.
“The improvements to the Act
will provide development certainty for major projects
by creating long-term certainty and enable the
Australian Government to be more strategic and
flexible in protecting the environment and strengthen
the Act’s compliance and enforcement measures.
“The Government will be able
to make more timely decisions on projects and
there will be less duplication between Australian
Government and State processes.
“Changes to the Act will allow
greater strategic consideration of developments
– which means that their impact on the environment
will be considered not just on an individual project
basis, but also in local and regional contexts,”
Senator Campbell said.
“The amendments will increase
public access to information and documentation
used as part of the approval process, including
publishing development details and setting time
limits on publishing applications.
The amendments will also allow
the Minister to take a more strategic approach
towards listing heritage places and threatened
species.
They will strengthen compliance
and enforcement measures by making it easier to
take action against people who breach the Act,
and establishing new enforcement options as an
alternative to expensive court proceedings.
Further information about the
proposed amendments, including the complete list
of amendments is available at: www.deh.gov.au/epbc.
Rob Broadfield
