The EPA develops various policy and guidance documents, ranging from statutory requirements that carry the force of law to documents outlining the EPA’s position on different environmental matters and technical guidance to help proponents during the environmental impact assessment process. Post assessment guidelines are also produced to help proponents comply with environmental conditions that may be set under Ministerial Statements.

The EPA also prepares Strategic Advice to Government under section 16(e) of the Environmental Protection Act 1986. Strategic Advice tends to be related to a specific project or environmental issue.

The EPA on occasion provides advice in the course of preparing reports on individual projects. These reports can be found here.

Following the review of the Environmental Impact Assessment process the EPA revised the terminology of some of its documents. In October 2009 Guidance Statements were renamed Environmental Assessment Guidelines and Position Statements are now known as Environmental Protection Bulletins. The old terminology will remain in place for existing documents and new documents will carry the new classification.

Policy and guidelines framework