ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION (COST RECOVERY) REGULATIONS 2021
1091. Hon TJORN SIBMA to the minister representing the
Minister for Environment:
I refer to the draft Environmental
Protection (Cost Recovery) Regulations 2021.
(1) Noting that
the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation will not rule out the
potential for over-recovery of fees and/or the cross-subsidisation of other
departmental and government functions and that DWER is unlikely to deliver any
processing efficiencies as a result of the measure and that there has still
been no disclosure of the datasets underpinning the proposed cost-recovery
model, will the minister commit to directing
an independent audit of the cost-recovery scheme 12 months after it comes into
effect?
(2) If not, why not?
Hon
STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for
some notice of the question. The following answer has been provided by the
Minister for Environment.
(1) The head
power enabling cost recovery precludes the Department of Water and
Environmental Regulation from over-recovery
of fees. The pricing model includes only costs associated with delivery of
services under part IV, divisions 1 and 2. Further, and to ensure that
there is neither over-recovery nor cross-subsidisation of other functions, the
pricing model is based on recovering a maximum of 80 per cent of the total
costs of delivering these functions.
Regarding
process efficiencies, DWER has been clear with stakeholders that efficiencies
will be rolled out over the coming months as a result of recent
amendments to the Environmental Protection Act 1986 and the development of Environment Online. To ensure that these efficiencies
are appropriately accounted for and
incorporated into future cost-recovery models, and in response to feedback
received from stakeholders during the extensive consultation on cost
recovery, an additional regulation has been drafted to require the chief
executive officer of DWER to initiate a review of fees as soon as practicable
after 1 July 2023.
(2) Not applicable.