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:
Pandanus spiralis Screw pine
with a notation that inclusion of the specimens in the list is subject to the following restrictions or conditions:
- Excludes the EPBC listed variety, Pandanus spiralis var. flammeus (Edgar Plains Pandanus)
- Non-living, non-reproductively viable material
Subsection 303DC(3) of the EPBC Act provides that before amending the list, the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities 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 case, the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities consulted with state and territory ministers in Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory for the environment, and Indigenous affairs, or delegated agencies, and the Australian Ministers for the Arts, and Indigenous Affairs. Five responses were received, three of which supported the proposal, one requested additional information and one opposed the listing unless there were adequate safeguards to ensure the conservation of the endangered Pandanus spiralis var. flammeus (Edgar Plains Pandanus). Further consultation was undertaken with the relevant state department and upon receipt of further information, the state department advised that they were satisfied and supported the proposal.
This instrument is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
This legislative instrument does not engage any of the applicable rights or freedoms. This legislative instrument is compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011.
The instrument commenced on the day after it was registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.