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:
- specimens that are or are derived from fish or invertebrates, other than specimens that belong to species listed under Part 13 of the EPBC Act, taken in the Southern and Eastern Scalefish and Shark Fishery, as defined in the management regime for the fishery made under the Fisheries Management Act 1991 and the Fisheries Management Regulations 1992
with a notation that inclusion of the specimens in the list is subject to the following restrictions or conditions:
- the specimen, or the fish or invertebrate from which it is derived, was taken lawfully;
- the specimens are included in the list until 28 February 2013;
- the Australian Fisheries Management Authority will inform the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities of any intended amendments to the fishery's management arrangements that may affect the assessment of the fishery against the criteria on which the EPBC Act decisions are based;
- the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, in consultation with marine mammal experts, will continue to monitor and review the adequacy of management measures towards the objective of avoiding mortality of, or injuries to, Australian Sea Lions so as to enable the recovery of Australian Sea Lion populations, including all sub-populations; and
- the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, in consultation with relevant experts, will continue to monitor and review the adequacy of management measures towards the objective of stopping the decline of, and supporting the recovery of Harrisson’s dogfish and southern dogfish.
Listing of the specimens described above in the list of exempt native specimens will allow continued export of these specimens until 28 February 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 fisheries 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 Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities consulted with the Australian Fisheries Management Authority as the Australian Fisheries Management Authority has management responsibilities for the fishery concerned. In addition, the proposal to amend the list of exempt native specimens was advertised on the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities’ website and comment was invited from interested people for a period of 41 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 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 30 July 2012.