Page 3743 - Week 12 - Thursday, 21 October 1993
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The Environmental Budget Statement which was tabled in the Assembly on 14 September noted that, as an outcome of a review of pollution control legislation undertaken during 1992-93, a public discussion paper on the Government's intention to prepare integrated environment protection legislation would be released in early 1993-94. Today I am tabling that document, titled "Proposal for Integrated Environment Protection Legislation". This discussion paper focuses on matters of principle and the broad approach. It demonstrates the Government's commitment to open consultation, to striving for excellence in environmental management and to achieving a strategic long-term approach to environmental management.
In releasing the document for public comment, the Government is taking an important step towards ensuring that we have an appropriate regulatory framework for pollution management that will help protect the ACT environment well into the future. By taking a broader perspective, as promoted in the paper, and by recognising the interactions between the various parts of the environment, I consider that there will be significant opportunities to achieve better environmental outcomes while providing for administrative efficiencies for both the ACT Government Service and the private sector.
In addition, there have been a number of recent developments at the national level which have implications for environmental management and regulation in the ACT. In 1992 the Commonwealth, all States and Territories, and the Australian Local Government Association signed the intergovernmental agreement on the environment and endorsed the national strategy for ecologically sustainable development and the national greenhouse response strategy.
A number of commitments entered into through these strategies need to be reflected in relevant legislation and management strategies, especially the role and function of the national Environment Protection Authority to be established under the intergovernmental agreement on the environment. The authority will develop a series of national environmental measures which must be adopted in all jurisdictions. These measures comprise mandatory ambient environmental standards such as for air or water, goals describing desirable environmental outcomes, guidelines to suggest how outcomes might be achieved and protocols describing how achievements and outcomes are to be measured. As a result, ACT legislation will need to recognise and give effect to the various categories of the authority's measures.
The integrated environment protection legislation will be developed within the framework of an ACT environment strategy. This strategy will provide the setting for an integrated long-term approach to environmental management in the ACT. New legislation will be a key implementation mechanism of the environment strategy. I shall be releasing a draft version of the environment strategy for public comment in the near future. The strategy will be finalised well in advance of the detailed development of the integrated legislation, which will ensure that the legislation is consistent with and supports the strategies, directions and objectives.
Current ACT pollution control legislation consists of a number of separate Acts; namely, the Air Pollution Act 1984, the Water Pollution Act 1984, the Noise Control Act 1988, the Pesticides Act 1989 and the Ozone Protection Act 1991. These Acts were developed to address different technical issues and aspects of pollution control. They are now out of date and require improvement.
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