Submission to the Independent Review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)

Most aspects of the Australian environment continue to decline and are projected to decline further, while there is little information available on the effectiveness of the EPBC Act in achieving its objects, this decline shows that Australias overall environmental effort, including effort under the Act, is clearly insufficient. Despite uncertainty as to exactly what the EPBC Act is intended to achieve, it is clearly capable of operating to deliver significant beneficial environmental outcomes but it is not doing so in practice, for reasons that include insufficient direction to decision-makers and guidance to proponents; absent or insufficiently-strong statutory plans; and significant under-resourcing. For the Act to deliver the strong, clear and focused protections, referred to in the Terms of Reference while making decisions simpler, reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens, supporting partnerships, improving transparency and streamlining and integrating planning, would require a major change of approach at all levels and a significant increase in effort. At a conceptual level, the Act needs to be built on a model that adopts a goal of sustainable use of nature and supports that goal with a coherent suite of principles concerning policy integration and participation; the maintenance of ecological function; adequate information and precaution; economic efficiency and environmental federalism.