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 (the 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 revoke the conditions to which the inclusion of the following item in the list of exempt native specimens on 1 December 2004 is subject:
- Specimens that are or are derived from fish or invertebrates, other than specimens that belong to species listed under Part 13 of the Act, taken in the Queensland Gulf of Carpentaria Inshore Finfish Fishery
and impose the following conditions to which the inclusion of the specimens in the list is subject:
- the specimen, or the fish or invertebrate from which it is derived, was taken lawfully;
- the specimens are included in the list until 11 November 2010;
- operation of the Gulf of Carpentaria Inshore Finfish Fishery will be carried out in accordance with the management arrangements in force under the Queensland (Qld) Fisheries Regulation 2008 and the Queensland Fisheries (Gulf of Carpentaria Inshore Fin Fish) Management Plan 1999 in force under the Queensland Fisheries Act 1994; and
- the Qld Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries to advise the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts of any proposed substantive changes to the Gulf of Carpentaria Inshore Finfish Fishery management arrangements that may affect the assessment of the fishery against the criteria on which EPBC Act decisions are based.
Listing of the specimens described above in the list of exempt native specimens will allow continued export of these specimens until 11 November 2010.
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 fisheries management arrangements.
Subsection 303DC(3) of the EPBC Act provides that before amending the list, the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts 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 proposal to amend the list of exempt native specimens was advertised on DEWHA’s website and comment was invited from interested people for a period of 21 days. All comments received were taken into account in the decision to include 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 the day after it was registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments.
Unique Identifying Number: EPBC303DC/SFS/2010/35