Page 3012 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 23 September 2014
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will create a single environmental assessment and approval process for nationally protected matters.
The commonwealth has introduced legislation which amends the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to facilitate the one-stop shop policy and the operation of the bilateral agreements. The bill we are considering today is the ACT’s part of that agreement.
Under the proposed one-stop shop, proposals that are likely to impact on matters of national environmental significance under the federal act will be considered by the territory. The proponent will not need to go through a separate approval process with the commonwealth. This should speed up the process of developments by maintaining a high environmental standard. The Canberra Liberals are pleased to see steps to speed up this approvals process. Long delays in approving developments are bad for everyone. Proponents, the community, interested parties and the government are all disadvantaged when approvals get caught up in green tape.
The one-stop shop model does not remove the ability for the federal minister to have a say in the approval process. Proposed developments that are likely to have significant adverse environmental impacts on matters of national environmental significance and are being decided by either the planning authority or the minister must be referred to the commonwealth minister for comment. Neither the planning authority nor the minister can make a decision contrary to the commonwealth minister’s advice.
The bill also introduces conservator concurrence to provide assurance about the acceptability, relevance and effectiveness of offset conditions for protected matters. The planning authority will not be allowed to make a decision that is inconsistent with the conservator’s advice about protected matters. The minister may act contrary to the conservator’s advice, but only if the decision is consistent with the ACT offsets policy and provides substantial public benefit. The bill also establishes criteria to guide the scope of the conservator’s advice.
The opposition is also pleased that the government finally has a published offsets policy and offsets policy guidelines. The policy and guidelines are a prerequisite for establishing the one-stop shop and address the commonwealth standards for accreditation. The fact that the ACT now has an official policy and guidelines means that it can be accredited to provide assessments under the one-stop shop.
As explained in the explanatory statement:
Offsets are a tool that can be used during the environmental impact assessment process and help to provide a form of environmental compensation for unavoidable residual significant adverse environmental impacts on protected matters. Offsets are a last resort to address these impacts and can only be proposed after all reasonable avoidance and mitigation measures have been exhaustively considered.
Provisions for offset conditions are included in the bill, including cases where offset management plans may be required. During the preparation of the plan, mandatory consultation with the conservator and the land custodian or lessee must take place.
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