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 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 Western Deepwater Trawl Fishery and North West Slope Trawl 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 9 November 2011;
- Operation of the North West Slope Trawl Fishery and the Western Deepwater Trawl Fishery will be carried out in accordance with the Western Trawl Fisheries Statement of Management Arrangements 2004 made under the Fisheries Management Act 1991;
- The Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) to inform the Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (SEWPaC) of any intended amendments to the management arrangements that may affect the assessment against the criteria on which Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 decisions are based.
- AFMA to produce and present reports to SEWPaC annually as per Appendix B of the Guidelines for the Ecologically Sustainable Management of Fisheries - 2nd Edition.
- AFMA to ensure that management arrangements in the Western Deepwater Trawl Fishery are complementary to the AFMA’s School Shark Stock Rebuilding Strategy 2008.
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 9 November 2011.
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 Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 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 the Australian Fisheries Management Authority as they have management responsibility for the fisheries concerned.
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/2010/42