2022-09-06 P&E Agenda - Item 5 - Attachment 1 - Six Mile Creek Bridge Replacement Offset Report - TMR

Table 1.1    Legislation and policies relevant to the proposed action

 Legislation/ policy/plans   Legislative jurisdiction     Intent                                                                               Applicability to proposed action
 Commonwealth legislation
 Environment Protection      Australia and its            The EPBC Act is the Australian Government’s central piece of                         MNES have been identified within and directly adjacent
 and Biodiversity            Territories. Specifically,   environmental legislation and provides the legal basis for the                       to the proposed action. As such, the proposed action
 Conservation Act 1999       projects that involve or     management and protection of nationally and internationally                          must comply with the EPBC Act.
 (Cth) (EPBC Act)            have the potential to        important flora, fauna, ecological communities and heritage places.
                             impact upon nationally       Under Section 45 of the EPBC Act, the Australian Government and
                             and internationally          Queensland Government have implemented a bilateral agreement
                             important flora, fauna,      relating to environmental assessment. This agreement allows the
                             ecological communities       Commonwealth Minister for the Environment and the Department of
                             and heritage places –        Agriculture, Water and the Environment (DAWE) to rely on specified
                             defined under the Act as     environmental impact assessment processes of Queensland in
                             MNES.                        assessing actions under the EPBC Act.
                                                          The bilateral agreement specifically aims to achieve the following
                                                          objectives:
                                                           Protect the environment in accordance with the requirements of
                                                              the EPBC Act
                                                           Promote the conservation and sustainable use of natural
                                                              resources
                                                           Ensure an efficient, timely and effective process for
                                                              environmental assessment and approval of actions.
 EPBC Act Environmental      Areas subject to the         Developed to support the management and protection of MNES                           The proposed action will implement avoidance and
 Offsets Policy (2012)       EPBC Act                     under the EPBC Act and outlines the Australian Government’s                          mitigation measures (including the provision of offsets) to
 (EPBC Act Offsets Policy)                                approach to the use of environmental offsets for impacts to MNES.                    minimise the significant adverse residual impacts on the
                                                          Eight principles for the use of environmental offset under the EPBC                  MNES.
                                                          Act have been developed by DAWE. These principles are used to                        Offsets provided for under the policy include direct
                                                          assess any proposed environmental offset for MNES to ensure                          offsets, and other compensatory methods (or indirect
                                                          consistency, transparency and equity under the Act. The Australian                   offsets). The provision of direct offsets is proposed base
                                                          Government’s position is that environmental offsets must:                            on the outcomes of the assessment of significance,
                                                          a)    Deliver an overall conservation outcome that improves or                       based on the extent of the significant adverse residual
                                                                maintains the viability of the aspect of the environment that is               impacts on MNES.
                                                                protected by national environment law and affected by the                      The proposed action will comply with the EPBC Act
                                                                proposed action                                                                Offsets Policy for any significant adverse residual
                                                          b)    Be built around direct offsets but may include other                           impacts to MNES.
                                                                compensatory measures
                                                          c)    Be in proportion to the level of statutory protection that applies
                                                                to the protected matter
                                                          d)    Be of a size and scale proportionate to the residual impacts on
                                                                the protected matter

                                                                                                   Project number 511784 File Six Mile Creek - Matters of National Environmental Significance Report 2021-12-03 Revision 1   8