Tasmania Shadow Minister for Environment Matthew Groom

EPA Needs to be Independent

Victor P Taffa

The Appointment of Mr. Alex Schaap as Tasmania’s new Director of the Environment Protection Authority (EPA), highlights Brian Wightman’s failure to ensure the EPA is a truly independent body.

“While no one would question Mr Schaap’s integrity or experience, the fact that the EPA must report to DPIPWE and therefore the Minister means that it is not a truly independent body.” Shadow Minister for Environment Matthew Groom said today.

“The EPA was established to exercise decision making powers in relation to environmental management and pollution control matters within Tasmania. It was established as an independent authority so that Tasmanians could have confidence that decisions were being made independent of government or other political influence.”

“But the EPA has never been allowed to be truly independent. Minister Wightman has missed a valuable opportunity in announcing the new Director by failing to commit to fixing this glaring problem.” Mr. Groom said.

“Minister Wightman should take this opportunity to remove doubts about his timidness and lack of experience and take the necessary steps to make sure the EPA is completely independent of the Department and of Government.” Mr. Groom said.

Western Australia Minister for Environment Donna Faragher

New Procedures to Improve Environmental Assessments

Victor P Taffa

Western Australia Minister for Environment Donna Faragher has endorsed new procedures to streamline environmental assessments by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).

 Under the changes, companies will be consulted on the conditions recommended for their development in a bid to improve the effectiveness of the conditions in protecting the environment.

Mrs. Faragher said these discussions would take place before the proposed conditions were submitted for her consideration.

“This move is about resolving technical deficiencies and other potential issues up front.” The Minister said.

“At the moment, the only avenue for proponents to raise issues with recommended conditions is through the appeals process.”

“Sometimes these appeals involve simple errors of fact, mistakes in interpretation or perceived difficulties with the implementation of a condition. These relatively simple matters will now be able to be resolved through the new consultation period.” Mrs. Faragher said.

The Minister said the initiative was part of the Liberal-National Government’s commitment to improving the environmental impact assessment process.

Mrs. Faragher said this was being done by improving the timeliness and effectiveness of the EPA’s functions by:

• Introduce outcome based conditions where appropriate;
• Use a risk-based assessment where applicable;
• Improve Project Tracking;
• Use greater rigour and consistency in the Scoping Phase;
• Focus more on Timelines;
• Provide more guidance to proponents to improve certainty, clarity and consistency.

“Collectively, these reforms are designed to achieve a thorough, clear, consistent and timely environmental impact assessment process that meets the expectations of the community.” Mrs. Faragher said.

Details of the new initiative are available at http://www.epa.wa.gov.au