Get ready for the New Environment Protection Act in Victoria

On 2 September 2019, EPA Vic released its long-awaited suite of reform documents: draft Environment Protection Regulations, Transitional Regulations and Environment Reference Standards together with guidance and overview documents. The Regulations support the Environment Protection Act and provide detail on the new scheme. Whilst there is still much uncertainty in some of the detail of the scheme, it’s now time to push ahead with compliance preparations.

CONTEXT

The reform of Victoria’s environmental laws is significant.  From 1 July 2020, the new Environment Protection Act 2017 (as amended by the Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018), will bring into effect a wholly new regulatory approach to environmental compliance based on preventative measures to manage environmental risk, similar to the regime for health and safety. 

The new law moves away from the traditional “prohibitive” approach of offence provisions that were only enforced by the EPA after an environmental harm had occurred, to an approach that enables EPA, and in some cases third parties, to enforce environmental laws before harm occurs.  It imposes new obligations on all industry sectors to manage environmental risk in accordance with new compliance requirements. 

There will be a significant increase in penalties under the new regime, and it will be easier for EPA Vic to enforce the regulatory scheme.  There are also new powers for the Courts, and new powers for third parties to both enforce the law and seek compensation. 

KEY CHANGES

The five key changes that are of most interest to my clients are:

ROADMAP FOR READINESS

For most organisations, the roadmap for compliance readiness looks like this:

©Guthrie Legal 2020

HERE TO HELP

If you need help with compliance preparedness, I have teamed up with several leading environmental consultancies to offer integrated legal and consulting advice on compliance and risk management. Whether you need a detailed review of your EMS or advice on managing a specific issue, such as making contaminated land notifications, please reach out if you’d like to discuss. I also offer executive and legal team briefings and key personnel training.

This post is intended only to provide a summary and general overview on matters of interest. It is not intended to be comprehensive nor does it constitute legal advice. Whilst attempts have been made to ensure that the content is current, Guthrie Legal does not guarantee its currency. You should always seek legal or other professional advice on specific cases and before acting or relying on any of the content.