1.4. Legislative Context 1.4.1. Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999
The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) is the Commonwealth Government’s key piece of environmental legislation. It provides a legal framework to for the protection of the environment at a national level and focuses interest on protecting Matters of National Environmental Significance (MNES) as defined in Part 3 Division 1 of the Act and includes:
World Heritage Properties; National Heritage Places;
• •
• Wetlands of international importance (listed under the Ramsar Convention); • Nationally threatened species and ecological communities; • Migratory species; • Commonwealth marine areas; • The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park; • Nuclear actions (including uranium mining); and • A water resource, in relation to coal seam gas and large coal mining developments.
If a proposed development or other action (‘proposed action’) is likely to have a significant impact upon an MNES, then it must be referred for assessment under the EPBC Act. 1.4.2. EPBC Act Environmental Offsets Policy The Environmental Offsets Policy outlines the Australian Government’s approach to the use of environmental offsets (‘offsets’) under the EPBC Act. Offsets are defined as measures that compensate for the residual adverse impacts of an action on the environment. Where appropriate, offsets are considered during the assessment phase of an environmental impact assessment under the EPBC Act. 1.4.3. State Development Assessment Provisions The State Assessment and Referral Agency (SARA) assesses development applications against the State Development Assessment Provisions (SDAP). SDAP defines the state's interest in development assessment and includes the assessment benchmarks or matters SARA will assess an application against. The state uses SDAP to deliver a coordinated, whole-of-government approach to the state's assessment of development applications (Planning - Queensland Government, 2022). The Project may trigger assessment against state codes in the development application to SARA. 1.4.4. Nature Conservation Act 1992 The Nature Conservation Act 1992 (NC Act) and subordinate regulations, the Nature Conservation (Animals) Regulation 2020 and Nature Conservation (Plants) Regulation 2020, provide a legislative framework for the protection and conservation of Queensland’s native plants and animals. Under the framework, species of conservation significance are assessed and categorised with respect to population, distribution and potential
3 Wulguru Technical Services Pty Ltd – Heritage Minerals Upper Mundic Gully TSF – Fauna Survey Assessment Report
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