Dr STONE (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage) (6:42 PM) —I move:

The Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator the Hon. Robert Hill, mentioned in his address to the Senate during the Centenary of Federation sittings in Melbourne that one of the most important issues for the next century would be preventing the extinction of species. The minister made that statement recognising that we have a responsibility to future generations to safeguard the planet's biodiversity. I am pleased that today I am introducing into the House a bill that will help us to discharge that responsibility.

The Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Wildlife Protection) Bill 2001Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment (Wildlife Protection) Bill 2001 enhances protection for both Australia's native species and for species in other countries that are threatened by trade. Importantly, the bill will also establish a regime that is transparent and user friendly. The rules have been simplified to enable the costs of administration to be reduced. Resources will instead be focused on high priority conservation measures. Permits will no longer be required for trivial cases. The focus has shifted from process to outcomes, delivering benefits for proponents and the environment.

On a global scale, the illegal trade in wildlife is horrific. In dollar terms, it is likely to be second only to the illicit drug trade. Most people are aware of high profile species such as the black rhino and the elephant and the role that illegal trade has played in their demise. But there are also many less charismatic species that have been seriously threatened by illegal trade—species such as the Chiru, a Tibetan antelope, the Brazilian Rosewood, the salmon-crested cockatoo from Indonesia, the Queen Alexandra's butterfly from Papua New Guinea and the Baltic sturgeon. Australian native species are also in demand by wildlife smugglers. A rough knob-tailed gecko can fetch up to $US2000, while the Palm Cockatoo may be sold for $US12,000 per pair.

There are also good news stories, where truly sustainable, often community based, use of wildlife is delivering real conservation benefits. The bill seeks to promote such outcomes, ensuring that any use of wildlife is ecologically sustainable.

Australia, along with more than 150 other nations, is a party to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES. This convention provides an international framework for addressing the threats to wildlife from international trade.

Australia is recognised for the leadership role it has played within CITES. In recent years, we have enhanced this reputation through our advocacy of pioneering measures to protect marine species under CITES. We were successful in uplisting our population of dugong to appendix I, we have nominated the great white shark for CITES listing and we have initiated work under CITES on the conservation of sygnathids and seahorses. In addition, Australia has actively opposed recent proposals to downlist the great whale species.

CITES is currently implemented in Australia through the Wildlife Protection (Regulation of Exports and Imports) Act 1982. While the wildlife protection act is still fundamentally sound, it no longer represents best practice.

The processes under the wildlife protection act are not user friendly. The provisions are too complex, and permits are required in circumstances where the permitting process delivers no conservation benefit. In addition, the act is difficult to enforce, does not sufficiently incorporate requirements for ecosystem assessments and does not incorporate important principles such as the precautionary principle.

Accordingly, the bill provides for the wildlife protection act to be repealed and the scheme for regulating wildlife trade to be upgraded, simplified and incorporated into the EPBC Act.

The new wildlife trade provisions of the EPBC Act fully implement CITES and will ensure Australia continues to have the toughest wildlife trade laws in the world.

The bill also introduces into the EPBC Act measures that regulate trade in Australia's native species that are not CITES listed.

The EPBC Act provides, for the first time in the history of our federation, substantive protection under Commonwealth legislation for threatened species and their habitats.

Now the protection offered by the EPBC Act is further enhanced by the inclusion of measures to regulate trade in our biodiversity, with the objective of ensuring any use of our native species is ecologically sustainable.

The bill delivers many improvements over the existing regime in the wildlife protection act. For example:

· Under the new regime, decisions regarding the sustainable use of wildlife, including permit decisions and decisions whether to approve harvesting arrangements, must consider potential impacts on the ecosystem generally. As a result, the bill requires an assessment of both the broader impacts on biodiversity and habitat and the direct impacts on the species to be harvested.

· Animal welfare considerations are a higher priority. The bill increases the emphasis on welfare issues by providing the government with the capacity, through regulations, to ensure proposals for the sustainable use of wildlife observe strict welfare requirements.

· The rules are simplified. Permits will not be required for trivial cases—such as the export of a moulted feather.

· Inclusion in the EPBC Act framework means the wildlife trade provisions are more effectively integrated with formal environmental impact assessment processes. These processes, reflecting best environmental practice, incorporate strict time frames to ensure efficient consideration by government.

· Enforcement of the bill is significantly enhanced by a restructuring of the offence of possession of an illegally imported specimen. If a person is caught in possession of a CITES species or a product derived from a CITES species, no longer will the prosecution bear the burden of having to prove that the product has been illegally imported. This burden on the prosecution has rendered effective enforcement of the act almost impossible. Under the bill, a defendant will now need to provide evidence, such as an import permit, that the CITES specimen was legally imported. This is a major step forward in the enforcement of CITES in Australia.

· Commercial exports of products derived from native species may occur only if the relevant species is harvested in accordance with arrangements approved by the federal environment minister. The bill strengthens the sustainability criteria that these arrangements must meet—requiring ecosystem assessments, adherence to best practice welfare requirements, adaptive management schemes and strong monitoring and enforcement regimes. In particular, the bill encourages the development of higher level management plans rather than allowing inappropriate reliance on lower level wildlife trade operations, formerly controlled specimen declarations. This is achieved by limiting the types of operations that can be approved as a wildlife trade operation.

· The bill introduces a requirement for the precautionary principle to be considered in making decisions regarding the use of wildlife.

· Groundbreaking provisions introduce a formal process for the strategic environmental assessment of proposals to import live animals and plants, providing a new level of protection against potentially invasive species. The intent is to prevent additional invasive species entering Australia. These provisions will complement Australia's existing quarantine legislation.

· The bill maintains the ban on commercial exports of live native mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians.

· The transparency of the decision making process is enhanced through provisions requiring publication of applications and decisions on the Internet.

· Protection for dolphins and whales is improved.

Importantly, the bill also enhances the efficiency and timeliness of the approval process. As a result, the new scheme is user friendly and free from unnecessary impediments to the ecologically sustainable and ethical use of our native species. For example, the bill provides a streamlined process for permit decisions, including tight statutory time frames.

It also provides greater flexibility for non-commercial exports from, and imports to, Australian zoos—both private and public—for the purposes of exhibition and conservation breeding.

In addition, for the first time the bill provides for the Commonwealth accreditation of state wildlife management plans. Exports carried out in accordance with an accredited plan do not require export permits. This is a major advantage for those industries that can demonstrate they operate in accordance with a management plan that is truly world's best practice. However, the criteria for accreditation are strict—the management plan must contain specific and ecologically sustainable limits on the taking of native species. Harvesting arrangements, including the specific limits on harvesting, must be approved by the federal environment minister.

The bill retains the requirement for an import permit in respect of species listed on appendix II. This provision goes beyond the strict requirements of CITES, maintaining Australia's reputation at the forefront of global efforts to protect species that may be threatened by trade.

The bill does recognise some CITES exemptions for the first time, including the personal and household effects exemption and a limited exemption for CITES II personal baggage imports. These exemptions do not in any way undermine Australia's strict conservation requirements. Rather, they mean that permits will not be required in trivial cases. For example, it will be possible to import some items, such as limited quantities of American ginseng, without a permit from the federal environment minister. This will reduce unnecessary administrative costs, freeing up resources that can be reallocated to issues of true conservation significance.

The bill also includes three minor changes to enhance the efficiency of the environmental assessment process for matters of national environmental significance.

· Regulations can be made identifying actions that are taken to be actions that trigger the national environmental significance provisions in division 1 of part 3 of the EPBC Act. This will enable the government to provide greater certainty for all stakeholders by identifying in regulations those actions or classes of action that it believes will or should trigger the EPBC Act. For example, the regulations will reduce uncertainty in relation to `marginal cases' that are specified in regulations.

· The minister can issue an evidentiary certificate which is prima facie evidence that a person has contravened or is likely to contravene a civil penalty provision in relation to the protection of a matter of national environmental significance. It is intended that evidentiary certificates will only be issued where the minister has reasonable grounds to believe that a person has contravened or is likely to contravene a relevant civil penalty provision.

· The EPBC Act currently permits the environment minister in certain circumstances to request a proponent to refer an action for a decision as to whether or not approval under the act is required. The bill provides that, where a proponent fails to refer an action as requested, the environment minister can make a decision as to whether or not approval is required. Such a decision can therefore be made only after providing an opportunity—15 business days—for consultation with the person to whom the request is made. The government places a high priority on this consultation. If there nevertheless remains a difference of view on whether the act applies, the government can decide to trigger the act in the absence of a referral where necessary to promote:

· a timely and efficient assessment process, including through the accreditation of state processes; and/or

· the protection of matters of national environmental significance.

Given opportunity for consultation, it is expected that this course of action will rarely be required.

I commend the bill to the House and I present the revised explanatory memorandum.