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 instrument deletes specimens from the list of exempt native specimens that are taken in the Queensland Sea Cucumber Fishery (East Coast), the Queensland East Coast Spanish Mackerel Fishery and the Victorian Scallop (Ocean) Fishery specified in Schedule 1. The instrument also includes specimens that are taken in the Queensland Sea Cucumber Fishery (East Coast), the Queensland East Coast Spanish Mackerel Fishery and the Victorian Scallop (Ocean) Fishery in the list of exempt native specimens, with notations that inclusion of the specimens in the list are subject to restrictions or conditions that the specimen, or the fish or invertebrate from which it is derived, was taken lawfully, and that the specimens are included in the list until the dates specified in Schedule 2.
Non Commonwealth Acts and disallowable instruments that are incorporated by reference in this instrument are to be incorporated as in force from time to time. The State legislation incorporated by reference in this instrument can be freely accessed on the relevant State legislation websites:
- Queensland legislation at https://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/OQPChome.htm (as of July 2017)
- Victorian legislation at http://www.legislation.vic.gov.au/ (as of July 2017)
The effect of this instrument is to extend the export approval for the specimens until the dates specified in Schedule 2.
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 and Energy 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. The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Victorian Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources have been consulted and support amending the list of exempt native specimens to include product derived from these fisheries 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 Legislative Instruments.
STATEMENT OF COMPATIBILITY FOR A BILL OR LEGISLATIVE INSTRUMENT THAT DOES NOT RAISE ANY HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES