GEPL335 Report: Australian Constitution's Impact on Local Environment

This report analyzes the relevance of the Australian Constitution to local environmental protection, focusing on the New South Wales region. It examines the role of the Constitution in shaping environmental regulations, the interplay between federal, state, and local governments, and the application of key legislation like the Environment Protection Act 1997 and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act). The report highlights the responsibilities of local governments in environmental management, including water management, waste disposal, and pollution control. It also discusses the consequences of non-compliance with environmental regulations and the role of public access to courts for environmental protection. The analysis underscores the Constitution's significance in establishing a framework for environmental governance and the importance of collaboration among different levels of government to achieve environmental objectives. The report concludes by emphasizing the EPBC Act's role in preventing environmental impacts and managing development through compliance procedures.

Environmental planning and
administration

Contents
Environmental planning and administration....................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Statement.........................................................................................................................................4
Main body........................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Australian national environmental law is considered as one of the most important law that helps
in making the significant impact on the protecting the environment of the country. It is seen that
there are large number of regulatory bodies and instruments that helps in governing the
environmental regulation in Australia. The legal system in Australia is based on the federal basis
in which the environment matters primarily at the state and the territory level. This is seen that
the regime that is built is varies between each state and territories. This report is based on the
discussion which implies that “Is the constitution of the country relevant for the local
environment in which I live”. Hence the report would provide the information on the
effectiveness of the legislations that are based on the environment of the country.

Statement
“How is the Australian Constitution relevant to my local environment?”
Main body
In the federated countries like Australia it is seen that there are various tension between the
different level of the governments and it is also considered that roles and responsibilities are
appropriately distributed among them. The main act that protects the environment in Australia is
environment protection act 1997. This is considered as the act that helps in protecting the
environment from the pollution and its effects. The area that is taken for the purpose of the report
is the New South Wales. Here the protection of environment operations act 1997(New South
Wales) applies1.
The constitution of the country has provided various rules and regulations which are applicable
on various territories. This is seen that the environmental regulatory system is considered to be
the combination of the environment law with the governmental departments, local government
and the courts which administer it with the jurisdictions that are created by the constitution of the
country. This is seen that there are various layers of law within the Australian environmental
legal system. Hence these layers includes the international, national, local, regional and state.
The act has provisions that relates to the regulation of the framework which helps in reducing
and eliminating the discharge of the various types of pollutants into the water, air or soil. The
constitution of the country has various powers which includes the Australia federal system of
government. The responsibility for environmental regulations is carried through the
commonwealth government and the state government concurrently2.
1 Bartlett, W. (2017). The Raised Spectre of Silencing Political and Environmental
Protest: Will the High Court Find the Workplaces (Protection from Protesters) Act 2014
(Tas) Impermissibly Infringes the Constitutionally Implied Freedom of Political
Communication in Brown v. The State of Tasmania. U. Tas. L. Rev., 36, 1.
2 Butterly, L., & Pepper, R. (2017). Are Courts Colourblind to Country: Indigenous
Cultural Heritage, Environmental Law and the Australian Judicial
System. UNSWLJ, 40, 1313.

This is seen that environmental protection and the biodiversity conservation act has been passed
by the government so as to protect the environment of the country. This is seen that EPBC helps
in protecting the mechanism so as to achieve the ecology and to sustain the development through
the protection of environment. This is seen that EPBC act works as one of the most important act
in which the approval is required to perform the activity which may impact the environment.
Hence some of the activities such as clearing the native vegetation, changing the natural flow of
water, or changing the habitat for pest control are considered to be one of the most important
activity and hence this is seen that it requires the approval of the Australian environment
minister3.
The constitution of the country has been made in such a way that it can pass laws for the
betterment of the country and it is considered that according to the law the extreme power is in
the hands of Australian environment minister. This is seen that state and territory laws applies to
the specific business activities in form of licenses and the permits. This is considered that the
specific approvals are required from the federal, state and the local environmental organisation to
perform the activity that may impact the business. Also this is seen that the type of the approval
depends on the location and the type of business activity.
This is seen that the roles and the responsibilities of federal, state and the local governments are
considered to be one of the most important as this helps in achieving the objective of
environmental protection. This is seen that the local government has been given the powers to
check and protect the environment of the local area. This is seen that local governments performs
the health inspection of shops on the daily basis. Also the roads, street signs and the bus stops are
considered to be checked through the environmental law and are to be considered as standard for
the protection4.
This is also seen that the local government of the country has been given the responsibility to
perform the objective of managing various elements which includes the following:
3 Graham, N. G. (2017). The ALRC Freedoms Inquiry, real property and environmental
law. Australian Environment Review.
4 Hallett, C. S., Valesini, F., & Elliott, M. (2016). A review of Australian approaches for
monitoring, assessing and reporting estuarine condition: III. Evaluation against
international best practice and recommendations for the future. Environmental Science
& Policy, 66, 282-291.

 Water management
 Management of the effects if the sea water rises to the specific points
 Controlling the vegetation and the weed control in the local area.
 Management of the disposed waste in the society.
 Quality of air and the noise pollution management.
This is seen that the government of the country has made the provisions where if the people or
the organisation don’t comply with environmental regulations than they are liable under the
criminal and civil penalties for the breach of the act that has been done by them. This act also
allows and specifies the general public and the group to have the access to the court so as to seek
the injunction order so as to protect the environment of the local area and to achieve the motive
of the protecting the environment. This is seen that if the Australian government is conduction
the compliance investigation than they have to normally consult with the local government and
the authorities5. It is seen that the Australian government has the aim to build the relationship
with the local, state and the community government so as to protect the environment of the
country. Hence the EPBC act is considered to be one of the most important act that helps in the
preventing the environmental impacts and to manage the development through the compliance
procedure and consultation fragmentation.
5 Harvey, N., Dew, R. E., & Hender, S. (2017). Rapid land use change by coastal wind
farm development: Australian policies, politics and planning. Land Use Policy, 61, 368-
378.

Image source: http://www.epa.wa.gov.au/framework-assessment-procedures-eia

Conclusion
From the above analysis this can be seen that Australian constitution is considered to be one of
the most important and powerful document that helps in making the law for the protection of the
environment of the country. This is seen that the constitution provides it as a duty of the citizens
of the country to protect the environment in which they are living. The EPBC is considered to be
one of the act that applies throughout country so as to protect the countries environment from the
unethical activities in the country. This is also seen that there are separate legislation that applies
to the different territories of the country. Hence this can be said that the constitution of the
country has provided various methods through which the environmental protection can be made.