The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Regulations 2005 (No. 1) inserts Part 2B into the Regulations of 2000. The following note is inserted under bilaterally accredited management plans:
Under section 45 of the Act, the Minister may enter into a bilateral agreement with a State or self-governing territory in relation to 1 or more of the following:
- protecting the environment
- promoting the conservation and ecologically sustainable use of natural resources
- ensuring an efficient, timely and effective process for environmental assessment and approval of actions
- minimising duplication in the environ-mental assessment and approval process through Commonwealth accreditation of the processes of the State or Territory (or vice versa)
Such an agreement may declare that actions in a specific class of action, approved in accordance with a management plan accredited in accordance with subsection 46(3) of the Act, do not require approval under Part 9 of the Act for the purposes of a specified provision of Part 3 (see the Act, subsection 46(1)).
Part 2B.01 is then inserted into the Regulation providing for ‘Criteria for accreditation of management plans for World Heritage properties and National Heritage Places’. The criteria for a management plan are that there must have been consultation with the Australian community generally; and any particular groups with a special interest in a place or likely to be especially affected by a management plan for the property or place. To this end, a draft management plan must have been released for comment allowing 20 business days to respond.
The content of the management plan must:
- outline the process of public consultation that was undertaken in developing the plan
- state the law under which the plan is in force
- include a description of the place as well as the relevant World Heritage or National Heritage values
- state what must be done to ensure that these heritage values are identified, conserved, protected, presented and transmitted to future generations and, if appropriate, rehabilitated
- set out the means by which risk management of the place will be addressed
- provide that adequate assessment of the impacts on these heritage values of any proposed action is provided for under the plan
- set out the means, legislation and processes that were used to assess the impacts of actions provided for under the plan, and are to be used in assessing future impacts
- require that the impacts of any actions likely to have a significant impact on heritage values will be assessed by means of the environmental assessment processes in regulation 3.03 and 3.04 and Schedule 1
- provide that actions in relation to the place may be approved only in accordance with the plan
- require a decision-maker to take the precautionary principle into account
- enable the setting of enforceable conditions to ensure that heritage values are conserved as well as provide for the monitoring, auditing and enforcement of the conditions attached to an approval
- set out the means by which the plan will seek to prevent, or minimise the impacts of any actions likely to degrade the heritage values, including actions leading to cumulative degradation
- state that actions that will have unacceptable or unsustainable impacts are inconsistent with the plan and cannot be approved
- provide that the plan is reviewed at intervals of not more than 5 years.
Source: Federal Register of Legislative Instruments F2005L02017, 21 July 2005.
