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 23 November 2010 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 Torres Strait Tropical Rock Lobster 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, 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.

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, 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 Protected Zone Joint Authority and the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, which have management responsibilities for the fishery concerned. 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 22 business days. No comments were received.

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 10 May 2014.

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