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EDO fact sheets
These Fact Sheets are a guide only and are no substitute for legal advice relating to your particular issue. If you need legal advice about your particular issue, please call our FREE Environmental Law Advice Line

The information in this fact sheet is up-to-date as of January 2011.

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); 2
  • public notification requirements (eg sometimes governments are required to publish notices and decisions on the internet); 3
  • 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; 4
  • statutory rights for individuals to bring civil proceedings (eg merit appeals and judicial review); 5 and
  • the right for third parties to be joined in some proceedings (joinder). 6

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. 7The 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. 8 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.

The Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 extends standing for Federal environmental matters by allowing any 'interested person' to seek an injunction to restrain a breach of the EPBC Act. 9

An 'interested person' is defined as: 10

  • 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.

For more information, see Fact Sheet 2.4 Land and Environment Court (NSW laws), and Fact Sheet 3.1 EPBC Act.

 

  1. Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 (NSW), s 5(c).
  2. 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 Pollution, section 2.5.1, which refers to the public register the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) must keep of all pollution licences.
  3. For example, see www.environment.gov.au/epbc/notices/index.html where you can track the progress of projects under the Federal EPBC Act.
  4. Eg Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (C'th), s 13.
  5. See Fact Sheet 2.4 Land and Environment Court , and 3.1 EPBC Act
  6. S ee Fact Sheet 2.4 Land and Environment Court .
  7. Environmental Planning and Assessment Ac 1979 (NSW), s. 123; Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997 (NSW), s 252 and 253.
  8. Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1977 (C'th), ss. 5, 6, 7
  9. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (C'th), s. 475(1).
  10. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (C'th), s. 475(6) and (7), s. 528.

 

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