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ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND ASSESSMENT (PART 5)
AMENDMENT BILL 1993*
NEW SOUTH WALES
EXPLANATORY NOTE
(This Explanatory Note relates to this Bill as introduced into Parliament)
Part 5 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 sets out the
environmental assessment obligations of government agencies which propose to carry
out, or propose to approve of others carrying out, activities which do not require
development consent (and which therefore are not subject to environmental assessment
under Part 4 of that Act by the council or other authority granting consent). If the
activity is likely to significantly affect the environment, the agency is required to obtain
an environmental impact statement, place it on public exhibition and take account of
responses to the statement. Typical examples of such activities are the construction of
freeways, logging operations, and other major public works.
The object of this Bill is to amend the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act
1979 to provide that, where a Government agency is both the proponent and the
determining authority for any activity for which an environmental impact statement has
been obtained under Part 5 of that Act, the Minister for Planning and not the agency will
finally decide whether the activity may proceed and any conditions to which it will be
subject following the examination of the statement and public responses to it.
The principal features of the Bill are as follows:
(a) The obligation to refer the proposed activity to the Minister for Planning will
arise only where the agency obtains an environmental impact statement because
the activity is likely to significantly affect the environment.
(b) That obligation will arise only if the agency is the proponent of the activity.
The Forestry Commission is declared to be the proponent of all forestry
activities authorised by it on land under its management. Similar declarations in
respect of other agencies may be made by the regulations or by the Minister for
Planning.
* Amended in committee--see table at end of volume.
(c) The obligation to refer a proposed activity to the Minister for Planning will not
apply if the agency is a council, county council or other specially excluded
body.
(d) After an agency obtains an environmental impact statement, the agency will be
required to publicly exhibit the statement and consider the public responses to
it before deciding whether to proceed with the activity and referring it to the
Minister for Planning.
(e) Before the Minister for Planning makes a decision on whether the activity
should proceed, the Director of Planning is to prepare a public report on the
matter. The Minister for Planning is to have regard to that report, any report of
a public inquiry and any submission from the Minister with the relevant
portfolio responsibility for the activity.
(f) The Minister for Planning may approve of the activity (with or without
conditions) or disapprove of the activity. For that purpose, the Minister is to
review the decision of the agency having regard to the environmental
assessment of the activity and the rights and obligations, of the agency.
(g) The Director of Planning will be required to prepare a report within 3 months
and the Minister for Planning will be required to make a decision on the matter
within 21 days.
(h) The power of the Minister for Planning to instigate a public inquiry by a
Commissioner under the Act is not affected-before
the Minister for Planning
determines the matter the relevant agency will be required to reconsider the
proposed activity having regard to the findings of the inquiry.
(i) The new procedures will not apply to environmental impact statements that
have already been prepared or that are currently being prepared in accordance
with the requirements of the Director of Planning, unless the Minister for
Planning directs that the new procedures are to apply.
Bill makes consequential amendments to the Timber Industry (Interim
Protection) Act 1992 which -includes interim measures for the Minister for Planning to
approve of logging operations to which that Act applies (the approval of the Minister for
Planning for those logging operations will continue to be required under the Bill).
The Bill also makes consequential amendments to the State Owned Corporations Act
1989 (which provides that Part 5 of the EPA Act applies instead of Part 4 for significant
State or regional development certified by the Minister for Planning and provides for the
portfolio Minister of the State owned corporation to determine the development). The
Bill will enable the Minister for Planning to decide in those cases whether an
environmental impact statement is required and to determine the development under the
new arrangements in the place of the portfolio Minister.
Clause 1 specifies the short title of the proposed Act.
Clause 2 provides for the commencement of the several provisions of the proposed
Act.
Clause 3 is a formal provision that gives effect to the amendments to the
Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 in Schedule 1.
Clause 4 is a formal provision that gives effect to the consequential amendments to
the State Owned Corporations Act 1989 and the Timber Industry (Interim Protection)
Act 1992 in Schedule 2.
Schedules 1 and 2 make the amendments set out above.