On 24 August 2011, the Australian Government released its
response to a review of the Environment Protection and
Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC
Act). The response is part of a broad package of reforms
to the EPBC Act and related policies and guidelines. Consultation
drafts released that are presently open for public comment include
the Australian Government Biodiversity Policy (biodiversity
policy) and the Environmental Offsets Policy
(offsets policy). These policies will be relevant
to any projects that trigger the EPBC Act and require approval and
provisions of an environmental offset. The draft environmental
offsets policy can be accessed
here.
The further development of the offsets policy is welcome given
the uncertainty created by the current practice of the Department
in determining offsets relying on the previous draft policy (in
draft since 2007).
