Recommendation 1
2.93 The
committee recommends that, pursuant to subsection 144(2A) of the Environment
Protection And Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, the Minister for the
Environment suspends the Roe 8 construction works until he has ascertained that
all the conditions of the approval issued for the Roe 8 works have been met by
the Western Australian government and by relevant contractors.
Recommendation 2
2.94 The
committee recommends that—whatever the outcome of the Western Australian state
election taking place on 11 March 2017—the Commonwealth works with the state
government and other stakeholders to develop productive and economically viable
infrastructure projects in Western Australia that incorporate rigorous
environmental assessments and conditions.
Recommendation 3
2.95 The
committee recommends that the Commonwealth government act urgently to amend the
EPBC Act to provide for emergency listings of threatened species and ecological
communities, and to consider addressing the effect of section 158A of the EPBC
Act which currently prevents consideration of threatened species or ecological
communities which are listed after the time a referral is made.
Recommendation 4
2.96 The
committee recommends that the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) conduct
an audit of the Perth Freight Link project including in relation to:
- whether appropriate
steps were taken to protect the Commonwealth's interests and obtain value for
money in respect to the $1.2 billion in Commonwealth funding committed to the
Western Australian government for the Perth Freight Link project;
- the effectiveness of
federal environmental protection laws, in particular the extent to which the
Department of the Environment and Energy:
- complied with its own
policies (specifically including Offsets policy and protection of species with
Recovery Plans),
- adequately assessed
impacts on matters of national significance during the assessment process,
- adequately investigated
and enforced compliance with approval conditions,
- adequately responded to
evidence significant and systematic breaches with management plans were being
ignored by the state government;
- the adequacy of
penalties to the approval holder for non-compliance under federal environmental
protection laws; and
- political
interference with the environmental assessment and compliance process.
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