EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

Amendment of the List of Exempt Native Specimens in accordance with Section 303DC

Section 303DB of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) provides for the establishment of a list of exempt native specimens. Specimens included in the list are exempt from the trade control provisions that apply to regulated native specimens.

The effect of this instrument is to include the following specimens in the list of exempt native specimens:

• specimens that are or are derived from fish or invertebrates, other than specimens that belong to species listed under Part 13 of the EPBC Act, taken in the Northern Prawn Fishery as defined in the Northern Prawn Fishery Management Plan 1995 made under the Commonwealth Fisheries Management Act 1991,

with a notation that inclusion of the specimens in the list is subject to the following restrictions or conditions:

• the specimen, or the fish or invertebrate from which it is derived, was taken lawfully, and
• the specimens are included in the list until 9 January 2019.

Listing of the specimens described above in the list of exempt native specimens will allow continued export of these specimens until 9 January 2019.

In determining to include the specimens in the list of exempt native specimens regard was had to the Australian Government’s Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries – 2nd Edition. Those Guidelines establish the criteria for assessment of the ecological sustainability of the relevant fishery’s management arrangements.

Subsection 303DC(3) of the EPBC Act provides that before amending the list, the Minister for the Environment must consult such other Commonwealth minister or ministers and such other minister or ministers of each state and self-governing territory, as the Minister considers appropriate. The Minister may also consult with such other persons and organisations as the minister considers appropriate. In this instance, the Delegate of the Minister for the Environment consulted with the Australian Fisheries Management Authority as the Australian Fisheries Management Authority has management responsibility for the fishery concerned. In addition, the proposal to amend the list of exempt native specimens was advertised on the Department of the Environment’s website and comment was invited from interested people for a period of 24 business days. All comments received were taken into account in the decision to include specimens derived from the fishery in the list of exempt native specimens.

This instrument is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

The instrument commenced on 10 January 2014.

STATEMENT OF COMPATIBILITY FOR A BILL OR LEGISLATIVE INSTRUMENT THAT DOES NOT RAISE ANY HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES