Regulate proportionate to risk

Targets

Built on existing understanding about the potential risks of regulated activities and increased data sharing with industry to improve decision making and better ensure effort is focused towards risk.
Improved the efficiency of its regulatory activities by prioritising resources towards activities that pose higher risks to the environment or built heritage.

We continue to build our existing knowledge of environmental risks to better ensure risk-based regulation.
The delivery of actions, such as the information sheet about how we consider risk (Action 1.2), will improve the efficiency and transparency of our regulatory activities.

The Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 was introduced to the State Parliament on 12 October 2022.
The Bill amends the Environmental Protection Act 1994, the Waste Reduction and Recycling Act 2011 and the Wet Tropics World Heritage Protection and Management Act 1993; and includes minor consequential amendments to the Land Title Act 1994.
Targeted stakeholders were consulted during the development of the exposure draft and written feedback was considered.
Following consultation on the exposure draft of the Bill several amendments were modified or deferred for further consideration.
These amendments were subject to full public consultation through the Committee process.
The Bill was passed by Parliament in March 2023.
In 2022, an independent review of the Queensland Government’s powers and penalties where it particularly relates to nuisance under the Environmental Protection Act 1994 was commissioned. The review was released in May 2023, accompanied by a Government response which accepted or accepted-in-principle all the recommendations.

We have published an information sheet (PDF) to assist assessment officers and applicants to understand how we consider risk in assessing applications.

We consulted on various options for EA conditioning when developing the Environmental Protection and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 and in 2023 will continue to investigate options for streamlining and modernising our approach to EA conditioning.
As investigations are ongoing, the timeframe for delivering Action 1.3 has been revised to 2023.

We continued to contribute to a review project which aims to better understand the environmental risks of resource activities regulated under the Environmental Protection Act 1994.
The project involves documenting the contemporary risks associated with resource activities to inform regulatory approaches proportionate to the risk of the activities.
As this project is ongoing, the timeframe for delivering Action 1.4 has been revised to 2023.