Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) is an Act of the Parliament of Australia that provides a framework for protection of the Australian environment, including its biodiversity and its natural and culturally significant places. Enacted on 17 July 2000, it established a range of processes to help protect and promote the recovery of threatened species and ecological communities, and preserve significant places from decline. The EPBC Act replaced the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975.

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
Parliament of Australia
Enacted byParliament of Australia
Enacted17 July 2000
Status: In force
Part of a series on
Wildlife of Australia

The EPBC Act established the use of Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations, which have provided for the issuing of approvals and permits for a range of activities on Commonwealth land and land affecting the Commonwealth. For example, commercial picking of wildflowers is regulated under the EPBC Act, and cannot be undertaken without an appropriate permit. Failure to comply with the Act can result in penalties including remediation of damage, court injunctions, and criminal and civil penalties.

The EPBC Act is administered by the Australian Department of the Environment.[1] On 16 October 2013 the Environment Minister announced that the Government had approved a framework for a "one stop shop" environmental approval process to accredit state planning systems under national environmental law, to create a single environmental assessment and approval process for nationally protected matters.[2]

On 16 June 2014 the proposed amendments[3] passed the House of Representatives, despite opposition from environmental campaigners and significant legal commentators who have criticised the Bill and expressed concern with the delegation of Commonwealth environmental approval powers.[4]

Scope

The Act identifies seven matters of national environmental significance:

Lists of threatened species, such as threatened fauna, are drawn up under the Act and these lists are the primary reference to threatened species in Australia and are available online through the Species Profile and Threats Database.

Treaties

As an Act of the Australian Parliament, it relies for its Constitutional validity upon the legislative powers of the Parliament granted by the Australian Constitution, which does not expressly refer to the environment. As such, key provisions of the EPBC Act are largely based on a number of treaties including:[6]

Reviews, audits & assessments

A large number of studies, audits, reviews and parliamentary inquries have examined various aspects of the legislation over the years.[7]

A 2005 study looked specifically at threatened species recovery.[8][9]

In 2006 Chris McGrath examined the constitutional validity of the EPBC Act and its effectiveness at regulating non-compliance[8] after two recent publications had called for major changes, concluding that it is indeed constitutionally valid and that it is making an important contribution to Australian environmental law, and its gains should be retained if and when any reforms are made.[10]

2007 audit

A review of the Act and actions taken under the act released by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) in March 2007, the audit is entitled "The Conservation and Protection of National Threatened Species and Ecological Communities". The audit widely criticised the Department of the Environment and Water Resources for inaction with respect to the EPBC; key findings of the audit include:[11]

  • that the Department has failed to keep the list of threatened species sufficiently up to date and has failed to prepare recovery plans
  • that there are still inconsistencies between the federal and state and territory lists of threatened species
  • that due to partial or incorrect information there is a risk incorrect decisions regarding conservation may be made
  • that the department has been denied funds necessary to meet their obligations under the act by the Government on four occasions.

2008 Hawke Report

On 31 October 2008 the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts commissioned an independent review of the EPBC Act. Section 522A of the Act requires it to be reviewed every 10 years from its commencement.[12]

The review was undertaken by Dr Allan Hawke. The aim of the report was to review the performance of the Act and, consistent with the objective of protecting the environment and biological diversity and maintain ecological processes, to recommend reforms that:

  • promote the sustainability of Australia's economic development
  • reduce and simplify the regulatory burden
  • ensure activities under the Act represent the most efficient and *effective ways of achieving desired environmental outcomes
  • are based on an effective federal arrangement.[13]

The "Final Report" was delivered to the Minister on 30 October 2009 and publicly released on 21 December 2009.[12]

2018 invertebrate studies

In 2018, two studies looked at the representativeness of listed species,[8][14] and the other insects and allied invertebrates, proposing a new, strategic national approach for the conservation of these animals.[15]

2019 assessment

A study by the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science at the School at the University of Queensland was published in September 2019 as a "quantitative assessment on the effectiveness of the EPBC Act in regulating the loss of habitat for terrestrial threatened species, threatened ecological communities, or terrestrial migratory species", as there had been little quantitative study in this area. It looked at whether the EPBC Act as implemented was achieving its objective of safeguarding Australia's biodiversity with regard to regulating loss of habitat for threatened species and ecological communities between 2000 and 2017.[8]

It showed that since the EPBC Act came into force in 2000, over 7,700,000 hectares (19,000,000 acres) of potential habitat and communities had been cleared. Of this clearing, over 93% was not referred to the Federal Government for assessment, meaning the loss was not scrutinised under the EPBC Act. While 1,390 (84%) species suffered loss, Mount Cooper striped skink, Keighery's macarthuria, and Southern black-throated finch lost 25, 23, and 10% of potential habitat, respectively. Iconic Australian species such as the koala, also lost about 1,000,000 hectares (2,500,000 acres) (2.3%) of potential habitat. This analysis showed that the EPBC Act is ineffective at protecting potential habitat for terrestrial threatened species, terrestrial migratory species, or threatened ecological communities.[8]

June 2020 audit

The 2020 audit was the sixth audit of referrals, assessments and approvals under the Act.[16] Published on 25 June 2020, the report found that the administration of referrals, assessments and approvals of controlled actions under the Act by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment was ineffective, disproportionate to environmental risk, errors have occurred, procedural protocols have not been followed, and the Department is "not well positioned to measure its contribution to the objectives of the EPBC Act". The Auditor-General made eight recommendations to the Department.[17]

  • Endangered Species Protection Act 1993
  • Australian Wildlife Protection Act 1998
  • Natural Heritage Trust of Australia Act 1997, which established the Natural Heritage Trust, providing funding

State acts

See also

Notes
  1. Australian Government, Department of the Environment: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Retrieved 20 February 2014
  2. "'One stop shop' for environmental approvals", Australian Government, Department of the Environment: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 24 February 2014. Retrieved 19 February 2014.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Retrieved on 20 February 2014
  3. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Bilateral Agreement Implementation) Bill 2014: "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 14 September 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Retrieved on 29 July 2016
  4. ANEDO submission on the Senate Inquiry into the EPBC Amendment (Bilateral Agreement Implementation) Bill 2014 and the EPBC Amendment (Cost Recovery) Bill 2014: "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 September 2016. Retrieved 29 July 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link), Retrieved on 29 July 2016
  5. Murphy, Katharine (9 April 2007). "Limited scrutiny on nuclear projects". The Age (Melbourne). p. 3.
  6. "The Environment Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act and the Australian Constitution". National Farmers’ Federation. 9 February 2007. Archived from the original (Word Document (.doc)) on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-04.
  7. Dalzell, Stephanie (25 June 2020). "Auditor-General's review of EPBC act finds severe deficiencies in Environment Department's processes". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  8. Ward, Michelle S.; Simmonds, Jeremy S.; et al. (8 September 2019). "Lots of loss with little scrutiny: The attrition of habitat critical for threatened species in Australia". Conservation Science and Practice. 1 (11). doi:10.1111/csp2.117. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
  9. Wilkinson, Debra; Macintosh, Andrew. "The EPBC [Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation] Act [1999]: the case for reform". Australasian Journal of Natural Resources Law and Policy. 10 (1). Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  10. McGrath, Chris (2006). "Swirls in the stream of Australian environmental law: Debate on the EPBC Act" (PDF). Environmental Planning Law Journal (23): 165–184.
  11. McVay, Peter; Mathie, Cameron; Crossley, David (2007). The Conservation and Protection of National Threatened Species and Ecological Communities [for the] Department of the Environment and Water Resources. Auditor-General Audit Report No.31, 2006–07 Performance Audit. Commonwealth of Australia. ISBN 0 642 80950 X. ISSN 1036-7632. pdf
  12. Independent review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 Archived 15 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Environment.gov.au. Retrieved on 2012-05-03.
  13. The Australian Environment Act: Report of the Independent review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 – Final report Archived 22 November 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Environment.gov.au. Retrieved on 2012-05-03.
  14. Braby, Michael F (18 January 2018). "Threatened species conservation of invertebrates in Australia: an overview". Austral Entomology. Wiley. 57 (2): 173–181. doi:10.1111/aen.12324. ISSN 2052-174X.
  15. Taylor, Gary S; Braby, Michael F; et al. (2018). "Strategic national approach for improving the conservation management of insects and allied invertebrates in Australia". Austral Entomology. Wiley. 57 (2): 124–149. doi:10.1111/aen.12343. ISSN 2052-174X.
  16. "Scathing Auditor-General's report on environment law makes clear case for new, independent regulator". Australian Conservation Foundation. 25 June 2020. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
  17. Australian National Audit Office (25 June 2019). Referrals, Assessments and Approvals of Controlled Actions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 [for] Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment. Australian National Audit Office. Auditor-General Report No.47 2019–20: Performance Audit. ISBN 978-1-76033-564-9. ISSN 2203-0352. Retrieved 26 June 2020. Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 Australia PDF

References

 This article incorporates text by Ward, Michelle S.; Simmonds, Jeremy S.; et al available under the CC BY 4.0 license.

  • "About the EPBC Act". Australian Government, Department of the Environment and Heritage. Retrieved 11 July 2006.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.