ENVIRONMENT Minister Murray Watt says his department will be sensible when enforcing the Federal Government’s new environmental laws.
With plenty of angst and confusion about the new laws, the Minister recently made himself available to The Week in Beef podcast to discuss how he sees the laws working in the cattle industry, how the self-assessment process will work and the controversial 15-year-limit.
While the updated Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation act (EPBC) became effective when it passed the parliament at the end of last year, implementing the practical side of the laws is still expected to take some time.
Two of the big changes for the cattle industry are that the laws will bring regrowth that is 15-years-or-older and regrowth that is withing 50m of a Great Barrier Reef watercourse under consideration by the Federal Government.
Producers then need to do a self-assessment and determine whether their activity will have an impact on a matter of national environmental significance, which includes threatened species habitat.
Asked what the Government was doing to make sure producers could confidently do self-assessments, Minister Watt said:
“What I can assure your listeners is that our department will be sensible about this when it is making those decisions about whether someone did a genuine effort to self-assess and when they didn’t.
“I want to acknowledge that most farmers do the right thing and they want to hand the land down to the next generation in better condition. But we also acknowledge that there is a smaller group of rogue operators who are not doing the right thing.
“Our department has very clear guidance materials, practice notes and policies about how it interprets the law.”
Why the 15-year-limit
The 15-year-limit on regrowth has been one of the more controversial parts of the legislation, with many concerned that it will lead to perverse outcomes where producers clear more often to stay out of another regulatory system.
Asked whether he had concerns for the unintended consequences of these laws, Minister Watt said it was important to note that the laws do not ban clearing of regrowth older than 15 years.
“I don’t think that people need to fear that any clearing that any clearing of regrowth more than 15 years is prohibited,” he said.
“Obviously, we will be taking steps if that clearing was going to have a nationally significant impact and that’s where our case officers are available to provide people with that individual assessment.”
Next steps in the process
The Federal Government will now go into a series of “bi-lateral” negotiations with State Governments to work out how the two sets of laws will intersect.
“What that might mean is that we could enter into an agreement, for example, with the Queensland Government where they undertake assessments of whether particular clearing activities not only meet Qld laws but Federal laws as well.
“We have a lot of work to do reach those agreements yet, but I have had discussion with every state and territory environment minister and there is a lot interest in doing that.
“Over the course of this year, I would hope we could have some of those bi-lateral agreements finalised.”
- To get in touch with the Department of Environment call1800 920 528
Of course they are not banning clearing of regrowth older then 15 years..
But they will be banning it via process. That is, the cost to get permission to clear will make it unviable.