Conroy, Sen Stephen

Senator Conroy: The Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question: (1) The department's Compliance and Enforcement Policy provides the basis for decisions to be made including whether to escalate a contravention through court processes. In this instance, this case did not satisfy the public interest and evidentiary tests which would warrant such a response. Matters considered included the quality of vegetation at the site, the willingness of the proponent to engage with the department and the length of time which had elapsed since the clearing event. In accepting the enforceable undertaking the department is satisfied that sufficient revegetation or rehabilitation of at least an equivalent area to that which was cleared will be achieved. (2) The total expected revenue and/or profit from the sale of the land was not taken in to consideration. The department is not in possession of these financial details. (3) Funds secured by the department in the enforceable undertaking will be provided to the Western Australia Department of Environment and Conservation for the purposes of revegetation and/or rehabilitation of suitable habitat. (4) The Western Australia Department of Environment and Conservation has advised that land suitable for revegetation and/or rehabilitation is available in the region where the clearing event took place. It is anticipated that $80,400 will contribute to the revegetation of a minimum of 6.7ha of foraging habitat for the affected species over time. (5) (a) The length of time taken depends on the size and scale of potential impacts. (b) The department understands that proponent costs for complying with the EPBC Act for an environmental impact assessment process may vary due to project size, complexity, and the availability of information related to the assessment. However, the department does not seek or hold economic data that quantifies the costs to proponents. Examples of these costs could include, but are not limited to, consultant fees, survey costs or holding costs. (6) (a) At the time the clearing occurred, the department negotiated offsets in accordance with the department's draft EPBC Act policy statement 'Use of environmental offsets under the EPBC Act' which was released in October 2007. Please note that a new EPBC Act environmental offsets policy and accompanying Offsets assessment guide were released on Wednesday 3 October 2012. (b) Offsets must be commensurate with the impacts of the proposal having regard to the relevant policies at the time the impacts occurred. (7) Recent approval decisions with offset requirements are available on the department's website and include the following examples; EPBC2011/6020 EPBC2010/5768 EPBC2008/4028