EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the Authority of the Minister for the Environment and Heritage
Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Act (No. 1) 2006
Proclamation
The Environment and Heritage Legislation Amendment Act (No. 1) 2006 (the Act) amends the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) to make the EPBC Act more efficient and effective, to allow for the use of more strategic approaches and to provide greater certainty in decision-making.
The table in subsection 2(1) of the Act sets out the commencement dates for the various provisions in the Act. In particular, item 4 of the table provide that items 608 to 780 of Schedule 1 to the Act commence on a day or days to be fixed by Proclamation. However, if any of the provisions do not commence within the period of 6 months beginning on the day on which the Act received Royal Assent, they commence on the first day after the end of that period. Royal Assent was provided on 12 December 2006.
The purpose of the Proclamation is to fix 15 January 2007 as the day on which item 763 of Schedule 1 of the Act commences.
Item 763 repeals section 478 of the EPBC Act, which provides that the Federal Court is not to require an applicant for an injunction to give an undertaking as to damages as a condition of granting an interim injunction.
The commencement of item 763 on 15 January 2007 ensures that the Federal Court has the discretion whether or not to require an applicant for an injunction to give an undertaking as to damages as a condition of granting an interim injunction.
Consultation was unnecessary for this instrument as it is of a machinery nature only.
The Proclamation is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.