According to a report from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), serious deficiencies have been found in the Department of Environment’s monitoring of major projects.
The ANAO audited the department’s compliance with the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, finding there was “limited awareness” of the progress of many developments.
“The increasing workload on compliance monitoring staff over time has resulted in the department adopting a generally passive approach to monitoring proponents’ compliance with most approval conditions,” the audit said according to ABC News.
“As a consequence, the department has limited awareness of the progress of many approved controlled actions and the elevated risks to matters of national environmental significance during various stages of an action (for example, during ground clearance and construction).”
One of the projects approved with conditions under the EPBC Act, was the proposed dredging of three million cubic metres of dredge spoils near the Great Barrier Reef.
This week the United Nations’ World Heritage Committee expressed regret over the dredging project’s approval, with many countries flagging concerns.
The Environment Minister in Australia’s conservative Liberal-National government, Greg Hunt, said in December he had imposed strict environmental conditions on the project.
ABC News reports the ANAO found many cases where departmental staff had failed to even notice conditions had been breached on existing projects.
“In many cases, instances of proponent non-compliance (mostly of a technical nature, such as a missed deadline to submit a management plan) were not identified by staff or were identified but not referred for assessment and possible enforcement action,” the audit said.
The report found the failure to appropriately respond to identified non-compliance can impact on the effectiveness of environmental safeguards, risk environmental damage, jeopardise the department’s ability to take future enforcement action and harm the public’s confidence in the regulator.
“The extent of the shortcomings in, and challenges facing, [the department’s] regulation of approved controlled actions does not instil confidence that the environmental protection measures have received sufficient oversight over an extended period of time,” the report said.
Despite objections from environmental groups the Australian government has secured agreements with all states and territories to hand them responsibility for environmental approvals.
Under the changes, the states will take on federal environmental assessment powers and consider applications under state and federal legislation.
ABC News reports the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) said the audit showed the federal government was in no position to handover powers.
“The Federal Government is in the process of handing over environmental approval powers to states without having adequate compliance and monitoring systems and without getting its own house in order,” ACF campaigner Ruchira Talukdar said.
“Sadly, the federal government is failing to enforce the law when it comes to protecting the air we breathe and the water we drink.”
In its response to the ANAO audit, the Department of Environment said it “acknowledged the shortcomings in its regulation of approved controlled actions”.
“The department has initiated a broad program of work to address the shortcomings identified over recent years, including those identified from earlier reviews and this audit,” the department said.
