Page 3857 - Week 12 - Thursday, 30 October 2014
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The change to the contaminated sites register is a step towards greater transparency and will show a better picture of the sites of concern in the ACT. The introduction of official internal appeals I hope will provide an equitable and legitimate form of appeal process without an entity having to engage ACAT in the first instance.
The introduction of licences for waste transfer stations and e-waste sites should be a good thing for the environment, providing it does not cause unnecessary red tape for small businesses or needless expense. The introduction of “potential” or “likely” to cause harm in this bill will be good to endeavour to protect the environment before harm actually occurs.
I thank all those involved in the preparation of the Environment Protection Amendment Bill 2014 and their work and dedication. In closing, Madam Deputy Speaker, we are pleased to support the changes being made in this bill, and I hope it assists the EPA in protecting our environment from damage in the future for the benefit of all Canberrans.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (11.58): The Greens will be supporting this bill today. The review of the Environment Protection Act has been undertaken over the past two years and involved the release of a discussion paper and public consultation period. The review of the act concluded that a complete overhaul of the legislation was not required, however, a modernisation of the act and a streamlining of language was required as well as a new regime of enforceable undertakings to provide a gradation of the responses available to the EPA in pursuing compliance measures.
There is no doubt that there could have been more fundamental changes to the Environment Protection Act and the Environment Protection Authority than what has been proposed by the government and we have before us today. However, what has been put on the table are good initiatives and will hopefully go some of the way in improving the operation of the act and the functions of the Environment Protection Authority.
I will take some time to run through some of the key changes to the act that are contained within the bill. There is no doubt that the objects of the 1997 act are somewhat a product of their time and have benefited from some streamlining in this amendment bill. The objects have been reduced from 16 points down to a leaner nine, and the objects have benefited in the main from the additional clarity.
New section 3D adds an outline of the principles that a person administering the act should have regard to. These are important principles in any environmental management regime: the principle of shared responsibility, the precautionary principle, the inter-generational equity principle and waste minimisation principle. I also understand that Minister Corbell will be moving an amendment to re-include the polluter-pays principle, which I believe was inadvertently omitted from the list of principles. Certainly the rest of the act incorporates and applies the principle of the polluter paying, and it is a key aspect of modern environmental law that needs to be retained.
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