Environment Minister Albert Jacob has welcomed the findings of an independent legal and governance review of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA).
Mr Jacob said he was pleased with the review’s work and that the EPA would act immediately on all the review’s findings.
The review team, led by Peter Quinlan SC and assisted by Eric Heenan and Sunili Govinnage, found the EPA’s suite of policies and procedures was overly complicated and that the policy framework should be updated. It also set out how the EPA should achieve this.
“This third party health check of the EPA was necessary to ensure their environmental assessment processes are sound, robust, transparent and easy to understand,” the Minister said.
“The review team’s recommendations set out a clear path to achieve this. The EPA chairman has advised me that the board has already started work on the recommended actions. He expects the required changes can be implemented by the end of this year.
“Western Australia is fortunate to have one of the most rigorous and well-regarded environmental assessment and approvals process in the world. The administrative improvements recommended by the review team will ensure these processes are strengthened and are more easily understood by the community and project proponents.”
Mr Jacob said there had been significant effort since 2008 to streamline and improve the transparency of Western Australia’s environmental assessment process. Changes included the creation of a separate Office of the Environmental Protection Authority, resulting in the increased independence of the EPA.
“I recognise however that we can always do better and this review has confirmed that there are additional changes necessary to further strengthen the EPA’s processes,” he said.
“This review and the implementation of its recommendations should provide the community and industry with confidence that the Western Australian Government is committed to maintaining the highest standards of environmental impact assessment.”
The Legal and Governance Review into Policies and Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessments is available at http://www.epa.wa.gov.au
Fact
The independent legal and governance review into the EPA follows a decision by the Supreme Court in December 2015 about the environmental assessment of the Stage 8 Roe Highway extension project