Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts Australian Capital Territory Consolidated Acts(1) The auditor-general may at any time conduct a performance audit in respect of—
(a) a department; or
(b) a territory entity; or
(c) a joint venture in which the Territory or a territory entity has a controlling interest; or
(d) a trust in which the Territory or a territory entity has a controlling interest.
(2) The auditor-general may at any time conduct a single performance audit of 2 or more of the entities mentioned in subsection (1) in relation to any aspect of the operations of the entities that the auditor-general is satisfied is common to each of them.
(3) In the conduct of a performance audit, the auditor-general may, where appropriate, take into account environmental issues relative to the operations being reviewed or examined, having regard to the principles of ecologically sustainable development.
(4) In this section:
"ecologically sustainable development" means the effective integration of economic and environmental considerations in decision-making processes achievable through implementation of the following principles:
(a) the precautionary principle;
(b) the inter-generational equity principle;
(c) conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity;
(d) improved valuation and pricing of environmental resources.
"the inter-generational equity principle" means that the present generation should ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment is maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations.
"the precautionary principle" means that, if there is a threat of serious or irreversible environmental damage, a lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation.