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 revoke the conditions to which the inclusion of the following item in the list of exempt native specimens on 30 June 2005 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 Rocky Reef Fin Fish 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 26 April 2013
- operation of the Queensland Rocky Reef Fin Fish Fishery will be carried out in accordance with the management regime for the fishery in force under the Queensland Fisheries Act 1994 and the Queensland Fisheries Regulation 2008
- Fisheries Queensland to inform the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities of any intended amendments to the management arrangements that may affect the assessment of the fishery against the criteria on which Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 decisions are based, and
- Fisheries Queensland to provide bi-annual updates to the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities on the status and management of the Rocky Reef Fin Fish Fishery in relation to the long term recovery of snapper to ecologically viable stock levels.
Revoking the conditions and imposing the above conditions to which the inclusion of the specimens in the list of exempt native specimens is subject will allow continued export of these specimens until 26 April 2013.
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 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 instance, the Delegate of the Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities consulted with Fisheries Queensland as Fisheries Queensland has management responsibility for the fishery concerned.
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 26 April 2012.