Report aims at better, fairer environment laws

September 27, 2007

A report launched in Canberra yesterday recommends a major overhaul of environmental regulations to make them fairer and more effective.

The report, commissioned by the Australian Farm Institute and Land and Water Australia, documents the results of a year-long study by researchers at the Australian Centre for Agriculture and Law (AgLaw Centre) at the University of New England.

"Regulations such as those relating to native vegetation need to be fairer," said Professor Paul Martin, the Director of the AgLaw Centre and the project's principal investigator. "We know we need to protect native vegetation, and, with climate change, it's going to get even more important. Using current approaches, however, the burden will fall on a small number of landowners. How do we make such laws more fair?"

"And how effective are the regulations designed to protect our coasts?" he continued. "We have lots and lots of law, but the long-term degradation of our estuaries and foreshores continues."

Professor Martin, who introduced the report during its launch at a seminar organised by the Australian Farm Institute, said the project had looked at "what kinds of regulation work efficiently, and the best processes for creating such regulations". "Our objective was to clear the way for reducing the complexity of environmental law and applying international best practice to creating regulation," he said.

He emphasised that the aim of the study was not "naive deregulation", but rather "making whatever level of regulatory constraint has been politically determined as appropriate and efficient as possible".

Other speakers at the seminar were Charles Burke, the Vice-President of the National Farmers' Federation, and Sue Holmes, Assistant Commissioner with the Productivity Commission. The report is expected to complement – and contribute to – an inquiry into rural regulation being conducted by the Productivity Commission.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at September 27, 2007 10:27 AM