EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

Amendment of the List of Exempt Native Specimens in accordance with Section 303DC (1)(a)

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:

• giant scarlet prawns (Aristaeopsis edwardsiana), royal red prawns (Haliporoides sibogae), giant red prawn (Aristaeomorpha foliacae) and scampi (Metanephrops spp. and Nephropsis spp.) taken by Schulz Fisheries Pty Ltd in the Queensland East Coast Otter Trawl Fishery as defined in the Queensland Fisheries (East Coast Trawl) Management Plan 2010 in force under the Queensland Fisheries Act 1994,

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

• the specimen, or the fish from which it is derived, was taken lawfully, and
• the specimens are covered by the declaration of an approved wildlife trade operation under section 303FN of the EPBC Act in relation to the fishery.

References to definitions in instruments made under or in force under legislation are to be read as references to provisions in those instruments and legislation as in force from time to time.

Listing of the specimens described above in the list of exempt native specimens will allow export of these specimens, without requiring export permits, while an approved wildlife trade operation declaration for the fishery is in force.

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 Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries as the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries has management responsibility for the fishery in which the harvest of giant scarlet prawns, royal red prawns and scampi by Schulz Fisheries Pty Ltd takes place. 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 Legislation Act 2003.

The instrument commenced on the day after it was registered on the Federal Register of Legislation.

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