Strategic Environmental Assessment Legislation in Australian States and Territories

Abstract

Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) evaluates the impacts from policies, plans and programs with the objective of contributing to ecologically sustainable development. SEA has been applied voluntarily under many guises, but what provisions exist in Australian law for SEA? At the federal level, there are SEA requirements under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cwlth) and the National Environment Protection Council Act 1994 (Cwlth), both of which have resulted in assessment of strategic proposals, primarily of fisheries plans and of National Environment Protection Measures. Four of Australia's states have legislative requirements for SEA that relate to environmental planning and protection (New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia and Tasmania), and the two self governing territories also have some SEA provision. However experience is mixed to date, with little if any research undertaken. We briefly examine the implementation of these laws from a comparative perspective, and conclude that SEA legislation at the state level, at least, has developed significantly over the last ten years, and that legislative effort compares very favourably with effort at the federal level. However SEA is still not carried out in a tiered planning framework in any of the jurisdictions, and political will and understanding of the benefits of SEA remains weak.