ARTICLE · 28 MARCH 2016

Extended legal responsibility for environmental harm on the way in Queensland

Clayton Utz

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More persons and entities may be required to clean up or pay for compliance or rehabilitation of land under this bill.

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More persons and entities, such as related persons or companies, could be required to clean up or pay for compliance or rehabilitation of land under proposed amendments included in the Environmental Protection (Chain of Responsibility) Bill 2016.

What are the changes?

The Bill proposes to implement various mechanisms to prevent and remediate environmental harm by expanding the liability of entities who are related companies, a landowner or another person the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection (DEHP) decides has a relevant connection (generally a financial or management connection) with the company.

The Bill also allows DEHP to impose financial assurance conditions on the transfer of an environmental authority and extends DEHP's cost recovery, investigation and enforcement powers.

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