EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

(Issued under the Authority of the Minister for the Environment)

Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)

Instrument under section 184(1)(d)

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act) provides for the protection of the environment and conservation of biodiversity, including the protection and conservation of threatened species.

Section 178 of the Act provides for a list of threatened species and (the List) separated into particular categories being extinct, extinct in the wild, critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable and conservation dependent.

Section 181 of the Act provides for a list of threatened ecological communities and (the List) separated into particular categories being critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable.

Section 184(1)(d) of the Act provides for the correcting and inaccuracy or updating the name of a listed species or ecological community.

The purpose of this Instrument is to amend the List by:

• including in the threatened species list the headings for the categories of extinct in the wild, critically endangered and conservation dependant.
• including in the threatened ecological communities list the headings for the categories of critically endangered and vulnerable.
• omitting the item numbers from the items in the list.

Background

The inclusion of the headings has resulted from the omission of the headings at the creation of the list in July 2000. The omission of the headings has been identified during a process to update the compilation list.

There are no requirements to include item numbers in the list.

Consultation

In accordance with section 184(1)(d) consultation is not required to be undertaken before the instrument was made. 

Although not required, consultation was undertaken in October 2013 with the Office of Parliamentary Counsel.

This Instrument is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.

The Instrument is taken to have commenced on 16 July 2000.

The retrospective commencement of this instrument does not contravene subsection 12(2) of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 because it does not impose any detriment on a person, or remove any rights from a person, with retrospective effect.

Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights

Prepared in accordance with Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011

Amendment to the list of threatened species under section 178 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (XXX)

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.

Overview of the Legislative Instrument

The purpose of this Instrument is to amend the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 list of threatened species by deleting 12 Queensland endemic flora species from the vulnerable category of the list.

These species have been deleted from the vulnerable category as they did not meet any criteria, because they are variously either protected in reserves, do not have limited populations, geographic distributions are not limited or precarious, or are not subject to threats, or in one case, does not meet the definition of a species under the EPBC Act as it is a hybrid.

Human rights implications

This Legislative Instrument does not engage any of the applicable rights or freedoms.

Conclusion

This Legislative Instrument is compatible with human rights as it does not raise any human rights issues.