Australia: New Bilateral Agreement Between SA And The Commonwealth

Key Point

• All jurisdictions except the ACT and Victoria now have EPBC bilateral agreements, making assessment processes clearer.

Last month the Commonwealth and South Australian Governments signed a bilateral agreement under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act). This means that all jurisdictions except the ACT and Victoria now have EPBC bilateral agreements. Public exhibition of a draft bilateral agreement for the ACT has just concluded, and it may not be long before this agreement is also signed.

All of the State or Territory bilateral agreements so far are assessment bilateral agreements, which effectively provide for the accreditation of a State or Territory assessment process; they remove the requirement for separate assessment under the EPBC Act, and allow an approval under the EPBC Act to be given on the basis of the State or Territory assessment process.

For further information, please contact Nick at nthomas@claytonutz.com

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