Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

A person must not take on Commonwealth land an action that has, will have or is likely to have a significant impact on the environment.

A person must not take outside Commonwealth land an action that:

has or will have a significant impact on the environment on Commonwealth land; or

is likely to have a significant impact on the environment on Commonwealth land.

Subsections (1) and (2) are civil penalty provisions.

For the maximum pecuniary penalty for a contravention of a civil penalty provision of this Part, see section 481A.

Subsection (1) or (2) does not apply to an action if:

an approval of the taking of the action by the person is in operation under Part 9 for the purposes of the subsection; or

Part 4 lets the person take the action without an approval under Part 9 for the purposes of the subsection; or

there is in force a determination under section 79E that the action may continue to be taken and the action is taken in accordance with the conditions (if any) specified in the determination; or

there is in force a decision of the Minister under Division 2 of Part 7 that the subsection is not a controlling provision for the action and, if the decision was made because the Minister believed the action would be taken in a manner specified in the notice of the decision under section 77, the action is taken in that manner; or

the action is an action described in subsection 160(2) (which describes actions whose authorisation is subject to a special environmental assessment process); or

the person taking the action is the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth agency.

This section protects (among other things) the Commonwealth Heritage values of a Commonwealth Heritage place on Commonwealth land, because the heritage values of a place are part of the environment. See the definition of environment in section 528.

Section 28 regulates actions by the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth agency with a significant impact on the environment.