Overview

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act) was enacted by the Australian Parliament to safeguard the environment, particularly matters of national environmental significance, and to conserve biodiversity, including the protection of native species and ecological communities affected by key threatening processes. To address the specific issue of injury and fatality to vertebrate marine life caused by ingestion of, or entanglement in, harmful marine debris, which is identified as a key threatening process under the Act, the Minister for the Environment was empowered to develop a threat abatement plan. This was formalised in the Threat Abatement Plan for the impacts of marine debris on the vertebrate wildlife of Australia’s coasts and oceans, which was developed in consultation with the public and relevant research, industry, government and non-government organisations. The policy objective of this plan is to reduce the adverse effects of marine debris on Australia’s biodiversity, providing a national strategy to guide the actions of various stakeholders and outlining the necessary research, management and other actions to mitigate this threat.

Scope and Application

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 applies to all individuals and entities within Australia that engage in activities that may impact matters of national environmental significance or biodiversity. This includes any vertebrate wildlife affected by harmful marine debris, and it extends to all Commonwealth agencies, industries, and transactions that have the potential to affect Australia’s coasts and oceans. The Act’s jurisdiction encompasses the entire Commonwealth, ensuring a unified approach to environmental protection and conservation across the nation. Exclusions or exemptions from the Act's application are not specified in the Threat Abatement Plan for marine debris impacts, although the Act generally allows for certain activities to be exempted through subordinate instruments. The plan itself was developed under the authority of the Assistant Minister for the Environment and aims to reduce the impact of marine debris on Australia's coastal and oceanic vertebrate wildlife, guided by public consultation and expert advice.

Key Provisions

The main operative sections of the Threat Abatement Plan for the impacts of marine debris on the vertebrate wildlife of Australia’s coasts and oceans (F2018L01047) are contained in Part 13, Division 5, Subdivision A of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (the Act). Specifically, section 270B allows the Minister to make a threat abatement plan for a key threatening process listed in the Act, which in this case is the injury and fatality of vertebrate marine life due to ingestion of, or entanglement in, harmful marine debris. This plan (sections 270B and 271) provides a national strategy and outlines the necessary actions to mitigate this threat. The development of the plan involved extensive consultation with the public, relevant research, industry, government, and non-government organisations, and advice from the Threatened Species Scientific Committee. The Act imposes specific obligations on parties and entities it governs under this plan. Firstly, the Minister must consult the public and consider their comments (sections 275 and 276) and obtain and consider the advice of the Threatened Species Scientific Committee (subsection 274(1)) before making the threat abatement plan. The plan itself requires government, industry, and research organisations to undertake research, management, and other actions to reduce the impacts of harmful marine debris on marine vertebrates. Additionally, the Act mandates that the plan complies with section 271 of the Act and regulation 7.12 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000. The Act also outlines specific offences, penalties, and consequences for breaches of the threat abatement plan. While the primary focus of the plan is on guiding actions to reduce the key threatening process, non-compliance with the plan's requirements may lead to enforcement actions under the Act. This could include administrative penalties, legal action, or other sanctions as deemed appropriate by the Minister. Although the specific penalties are not detailed in the explanatory statement, breaches of similar provisions in the Act can result in substantial fines for individuals and corporations, reinforcing the seriousness of compliance with the threat abatement plan.