ENVIRONMENT —
REDUCED REPORTING BURDEN PILOT PROJECT
490. Hon Dr BRAD PETTITT to the minister representing the
Minister for Environment:
I refer to the media statement ''Reducing
the reporting burden on industry'' of 16 May 2022.
(1) What is the intended period of
the reduced reporting burden pilot project?
(2) On what basis will the success
of the pilot be evaluated?
(3) How will the
reduced reporting burden project encourage licence holders to achieve ''good
environmental performance'' and how will this be monitored given the
reduced reporting requirements?
(4) Could the
minister please list the categories of prescribed premises that are eligible
under the pilot program for reduced reporting requirements?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided to me by the
Minister for Environment.
(1) The reduced reporting burden
pilot project is complete.
(2) The
project was initiated to reduce environmental reporting requirements for
lower-risk industry licences, allowing the department to focus on higher-risk
matters. More than 60 per cent of existing licence holders are no longer
required to submit an annual environmental report. All other environmental
performance requirements remain in place.
(3) The
department's monitoring of environmental performance is undertaken
through various compliance and enforcement activities, which includes incident
reporting, complaints monitoring, pollution response and intelligence gathering. When a licence holder does not achieve the
required performance, the department has
various mechanisms under the Environmental Protection Act 1986 to achieve
environmental performance. It
would be likely under these circumstances that more frequent reporting would be
required.
(4) All categories of prescribed premises listed under
schedule 1 of the Environmental Protection Regulations 1987 are eligible to be considered for reduced reporting
requirements. To identify the appropriate level of reporting for each licence holder, the department applies a risk-based
approach informed by recent monitoring and compliance performance.