RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation 1
The Commonwealth should not hesitate to creatively employ the wide powers
it possesses in order to protect and conserve the environment and should
vigorously defend its power when challenged.
Recommendation 2
The Commonwealth Government should establish an independent statutory
Environmental and Constitutional Law Experts Commission to advise the
government on: (i) when national environmental legislation is necessary,
(ii) the Government's ability to pass environmental legislation under
existing powers, and (iii) the form such legislation should take. The
Commission should also be empowered to monitor, review and advise the
Government on its performance in relation to its responsibilities for
environmental protection and ecologically sustainable development.
Recommendation 3
The Commonwealth should exercise a leadership role in the protection
and improvement of the Australian environment. This role should be supported
by the unsparing use of all Constitutional power available to the Commonwealth
to act in the field of the environment.
Recommendation 4
The use of the concept of "national environmental significance"
should be abandoned as a means of delineating the appropriate role of
the Commonwealth in the regulation of environmental matters.
Recommendation 5
The Commonwealth must fully and effectively exercise its powers in negotiating,
implementing and enforcing its international environmental obligations.
National obligations require national administration.
Recommendation 6
The Government should conduct an inquiry into the possible use of its
obligations under the Convention of Biological Diversity to establish
a comprehensive framework for environmental regulation in Australia.
Recommendation 7
The Commonwealth should acknowledge that it has ultimate responsibility
for the safekeeping of World Heritage areas. The Commonwealth should exercise
primary legal control over the protection, preservation and management
of these areas.
Recommendation 8
The Commonwealth should strengthen its statutory framework for the identification
and protection of World Heritage. The legislation should provide a comprehensive
national regime.
Recommendation 9
The Commonwealth should continue to consult with States in order to obtain
their agreement on nominations to the World Heritage List. In the event
of disagreement, the Commonwealth should retain its power to make unilateral
nominations. The Commonwealth should provide the ability for interested
members of the public to nominate a property for listing to be considered
by Commonwealth and relevant State Governments.
Recommendation 10
The Commonwealth should not devolve responsibility for management of
World Heritage areas to the States without ongoing supervision and reporting
requirements.
Recommendation 11
The Commonwealth should establish binding national management principles
to effectively protect and preserve World Heritage areas. These principles
should provide the basis for mandatory management plans for all Australian
World Heritage areas.
Recommendation 12
The Government should amend the World Heritage Properties Conservation
Act 1983 to ensure that the Act applies to a defined and adequate
buffer zone around World Heritage properties which takes into account
the natural ecosystem to which the World Heritage listed area belongs.
Recommendation 13
The Commonwealth should entrench the IUCN Guidelines for Protected
Area Management Categories in national legislation. In connection
with World Heritage areas the Commonwealth should ensure that exploitation
and occupation of such areas is eliminated and prevented.
Recommendation14
The Commonwealth should prohibit any activity that would irreparably
harm potential World Heritage areas within Australia at any time prior
to completion of the assessment process.
Recommendation 15
The Commonwealth should ensure that an assessment of World Heritage values
is required in the early stages of the Regional Forests Agreement (RFA)
process.
Recommendation 16
The Commonwealth should retain management responsibility for listed Ramsar
wetlands in order to ensure that its obligations under the Convention
are met.
Recommendation 17
The Government should make regulations under section 69 of the National
Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 to require Commonwealth assessment
and approval of all proposed developments and uses of listed wetlands
that are likely to have a significant impact on their environment.
Recommendation 18
The Government should amend the EPIP Act to require that all decisions
made under the legislation are consistent with the principles of ESD as
defined in section 6(2) of the New South Wales Protection of the Environment
Administration Act 1991. The legislation should contain a positive
duty on decision-makers and other participants in EIA processes, to carry
out functions provided under the legislation to meet the objective of
ecologically sustainable development.
Recommendation 19
The Commonwealth should use its powers to adopt national standards for
environmental impact assessment of a project proposal likely to have a
significant impact on biological diversity in Australia.
Recommendation 20
The Commonwealth should establish, under Article 8 of the Convention
of Biological Diversity, in conjunction with the external affairs power,
national regulation for approvals requirements and standards in connection
with proposed projects that may adversely impact on biological resources
important for the conservation of biological diversity and for processes
and categories of activities identified as likely to have a significant
adverse effect on the conservation of biological diversity.
Recommendation 21
The Commonwealth should be responsible for environmental impact assessment
process whenever it is involved in making a decision about an activity
or matter (its own or a that of a third party) that may have a significant
effect on the environment.
Recommendation 22
The Commonwealth should ensure that the national requirements and standards
it sets for environmental impact assessment include public involvement
in the determination of the environmental significance of proposals.
Recommendation 23
The Commonwealth should ensure that the national requirements and standards
it sets for environmental impact assessment include the right of any person
to refer a proposal to the relevant authority for determination as to
whether a proposal is likely to have a significant effect on the environment.
Recommendation 24
The Commonwealth should ensure that the national requirements and standards
it sets for environmental impact assessment include open standing provisions
to allow public access to the courts in order to test the validity of
governmental decision and restrain breaches of the law.
Recommendation 25
The Commonwealth should increase funding for the Environmental Defender's
Offices and peak conservation groups. Funding for the Environmental Defender's
Offices should not be restricted in its use to non-litigation activities.
Recommendation 26
The Commonwealth should enact comprehensive and binding national standards
for the protection of the Australian environment. In preparation for this
undertaking the independent statutory Commission of Environmental and
Constitutional law experts should be consulted.
Recommendation 27
In determining the substance of comprehensive and binding national standards
for the protection of the Australian environment, the Commonwealth should
engage in extended consultations with State and Territory Governments,
the wider community and industry.
Recommendation 28
The Commonwealth should take advantage of existing State and Territory
administrative arrangements and expertise with respect to the environment
(including practices, procedures and processes) by establishing a method
for accreditation of these existing arrangements in cases where they provide
at least as much protection for the environment as the established national
standards.
Recommendation 29
The Commonwealth Government should ensure that it retains the right to
act, including through legislation, on any environmental issue over which
it has power, notwithstanding anything contained in the 1992 Intergovernmental
Agreement on the Environment or the 1998 Heads of Agreement on Commonwealth/State
Roles and Responsibilities for the Environment.
Recommendation 30
The Government should propose an amendment to section 51 of the Constitution
to provide an express head of Commonwealth Parliamentary power to legislate
with respect to the environment if and when a republican system of government
is introduced by referendum and subsequent Constitutional Convention is
convened.
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