Part 3A of the EPA Act operates as a unified scheme in which the Director-General may commence preparing environmental assessment requirements before a formal application is lodged, provided there is sufficient information about the project. The 'statement relating to compliance' required by s 75I(2)(g) may be constituted by the Director-General's evaluative report as a whole and need not be a single certification sentence. The obligation to consider ecologically sustainable development does not mandate any particular form of quantitative greenhouse gas emissions analysis; the content and depth of assessment is a matter for the Director-General and Minister within the statutory framework. Gray v Minister for Planning is confined to its facts where the Director-General's own requirements specifically demanded a 'detailed greenhouse gas assessment' that was not provided.
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