‘Softly, softly' approach to natural resource offenders questioned

Source: Environmental Manager , Issue 580, 6 June 2006, page 3.
Online version http://services.thomson.com.au/cpdnews/print/EM/EM580_pf.pdf

Those guilty of pollution have always been “treated more harshly” than those who breach natural resource legislation, NSW Environmental Defender's Office director Jeff Smith told the EDO annual conference. The reasons for that “need to be articulated and debated”, he said. Smith said the “softly, softly approach” taken to enforcing natural resource management legislation undermined the potential for “general deterrence”.

However, NSW environment minister Bob Debus said moving agencies with natural resource management responsibilities to a model where they have “an overriding responsibility to protect the environment” is a complex task. It would be “a significant error” to assume it was easy for govt agencies “to move from one paradigm to another”.

Following the 2003 merger of NSW environment agencies there had been a “conscious decision” to focus on prosecuting “previously under-enforced provisions” of the state's environmental legislation, Debus said. These include threatened species provisions and those dealing with causing damage to Aboriginal objects, he said.