This Part provides for the assessment of impacts of controlled actions, to provide information for decisions whether or not to approve the taking of the actions. However, this Part does not apply to actions that a bilateral agreement or Ministerial declaration says are to be assessed in another way.

For actions that are to be assessed under this Part, the Minister must choose one of the following methods of assessment:

               (a)     an accredited assessment process;

             (aa)     an assessment on referral information (see Division 3A);

               (b)     an assessment on preliminary documentation (see Division 4);

               (c)     a public environment report (see Division 5);

               (d)     an environmental impact statement (see Division 6);

               (e)     a public inquiry (see Division 7).