Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

The Minister must, by legislative instrument, establish a list of threatened ecological communities divided into the following categories:

critically endangered;

endangered;

vulnerable.

Subject to subsection (3), the Minister must not include an ecological community in a particular category of the list, as first established, unless satisfied that the ecological community is eligible to be included in that category when the list is first published.

The list, as first established, must contain only the ecological communities listed in Schedule 2 to the Endangered Species Protection Act 1992 immediately before the commencement of this Act, and they must be listed in the endangered category.

If the Minister is satisfied that an ecological community included in the endangered category of the list, as first established under subsection (3), is not eligible to be included in that or any other category, or is eligible to be included in another category, the Minister must, within 6 months after the commencement of this Act, amend the list accordingly in accordance with this Subdivision.

To avoid doubt, the instrument first establishing the list under subsection (1) is not taken to have been a legislative instrument.

When the list was first established, it was required to be established by instrument published in the Gazette.