Review of the effectiveness of advice for planning schemes and scheme amendments that are not assessed under section 48A of the Environmental Protection Act 1986

This report outlines the methodology and key findings of an evaluation into the effectiveness of advice issued under section 48A of the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EP Act).

When the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) decides not to assess a referred scheme or scheme amendment (described collectively as ‘schemes’) under section 48A, it may provide advice to the responsible authority about environmental issues and management.

Seven local schemes referred to the EPA in the past five years (between 1 July 2010 and 30 June 2015), and four region scheme amendments referred in the past ten years (between 1 July 2005 and 30 June 2015) were evaluated.

Case information from internal files was reviewed and collected from discussions with Department of Planning (DoP) and local government. Advice considered to be impractical was also reviewed as a practice-improvement measure.

Published: 
October 12, 2016