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Last updated: 27 August 2008
1.5 How can the public participate?
Public participation in environmental decision-making is a crucial ingredient in ensuring that the law works effectively to protect the environment.
The importance of community participation has been recognised in many environmental laws.
For example, one of the stated objects of the NSW Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (EPA Act) is "to provide increased opportunity for public involvement and participation in environmental planning and assessment".1
Mechanisms enabling public participation
Environmental laws generally provide a range of opportunities for people to become involved in an environmental issue. Legal mechanisms which enable public participation in environmental decision-making include:
access to information provisions (eg through public registers): see Fact Sheet 2.2, section 7.2, which deals with the public registers a council must keep of development applications and development consents; Fact Sheet 3.1 EPBC Act; and Fact Sheet 4.1, section 2.5.1, which refers to the public register the EPA must keep of all pollution licences);
public notification requirements (eg sometimes governments are required
to publish notices and decisions on the internet, such as here where
you can track the progress of project under the Federal EPBC Act);
community consultation requirements (eg through public submissions);
community representation on advisory or decision-making bodies;
statutory rights for individuals to seek reasons for a government decision;2
statutory rights for individuals to bring civil proceedings (eg merit appeals and judicial review): see Fact Sheet 2.4 Land and Environment Court, and Fact Sheet 3.1 EPBC Act; and
the right for third parties to be joined in some proceedings (joinder): see Fact Sheet 2.4 Land and Environment Court.
The purpose of these fact sheets is to identify the opportunities for public participation under both NSW and Federal environmental laws. Turn to the relevant fact sheet to find more detail on each area of environmental law.
The right to bring proceedings (standing)
In NSW, most environmental legislation allows any person to take civil proceedings to remedy or restrain a breach of the law.3The legal term for this right is ' open standing'. However, there are still some restrictions on standing (ie who can bring proceedings) at the Federal level.
For example, the Commonwealth Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 only allows persons who are 'aggrieved' by a decision to seek judicial review of a federal decision.4 To establish that they are 'aggrieved' by the decision, a person must be able to show a special interest above and beyond that of the general public.
for an individual : a person who has been involved in a series of activities for the protection, conservation, or research into, the environment for the past 2 years or more; or
for an organisation : an organisation whose interests might be affected, or that has been involved in a series of activities to protect the environment for the past 2 years or more, and has among its objects and purposes the protection or conservation of the environment, or research into the environment.
