Citizen Investigation - EPBC Offsets for Mining Leases

Under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act) mining companies are sometimes required to "offset" the damage thay do in environmentally important areas by protecting similar areas elsewhere. This activity aims to investigate the extent to which mining companies are meeting their offset requirements.

Hypotheses to be tested

•         Mining companies take longer than other sectors, and longer than they are allowed in approval conditions, to protect land-based offset properties.
•         Rather than do anything about it, the federal Regulator varies approval conditions to give mining companies more time (or it makes other changes) to enable the miners to stay in administrative compliance.
•         Despite the EPBC Act Offsets Policy (2012), new mines are routinely (if not always) allowed to commence before land-based offsets are protected … and then poor administration takes over and the protections don’t happen.

If you would like to help with this evidence based investigation, or would like to know more about it, please RSVP to this event!