Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION ACT 1999 - SECT 26

Actions on Commonwealth land

             (1)  A person must not take on Commonwealth land an action that has, will have or is likely to have a significant impact on the environment.

Civil penalty:           

                     (a)  for an individual--1,000 penalty units;

                     (b)  for a body corporate--10,000 penalty units.

Actions outside Commonwealth land affecting that land

             (2)  A person must not take outside Commonwealth land an action that:

                     (a)  has or will have a significant impact on the environment on Commonwealth land; or

                     (b)  is likely to have a significant impact on the environment on Commonwealth land.

Civil penalty:           

                     (a)  for an individual--1,000 penalty units;

                     (b)  for a body corporate--10,000 penalty units.

Exceptions to prohibitions

             (3)  Subsection (1) or (2) does not apply to an action if:

                     (a)  an approval of the taking of the action by the person is in operation under Part 9 for the purposes of the subsection; or

                     (b)  Part 4 lets the person take the action without an approval under Part 9 for the purposes of the subsection; or

                     (d)  there is in force a decision of the Minister under Division 2 of Part 7 that the subsection is not a controlling provision for the action and, if the decision was made because the Minister believed the action would be taken in a manner specified in the notice of the decision under section 77, the action is taken in that manner; or

                     (e)  the action is an action described in subsection 160(2) (which describes actions whose authorisation is subject to a special environmental assessment process); or

                      (f)  the person taking the action is the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth agency.

Note 1:       This section protects (among other things) the Commonwealth Heritage values of a Commonwealth Heritage place on Commonwealth land, because the heritage values of a place are part of the environment. See the definition of environment in section 528.

Note 2:       Section 28 regulates actions by the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth agency with a significant impact on the environment.