Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016

This section applies to the following—

development (not being State significant development or complying development) that requires development consent under Part 4 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 when a Minister is the consent authority,

an activity that requires environmental impact assessment under Part 5 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 when a Minister is the determining authority.

For the purposes of determining the application for any such development consent, the Minister concerned is to consult the Planning Minister if the development is likely to significantly affect threatened species.

However, consultation under subsection (2) is not required if—

the application is an application to which an order under section 7.7(3) applies, exempting the application from the requirement to be accompanied by a biodiversity development assessment report, or

the Minister concerned is the Planning Minister, or

for other applications—

the application is accompanied by a biodiversity development assessment report in accordance with Division 2, and

the conditions of the consent require the applicant to retire biodiversity credits to offset the residual impact on biodiversity values of at least the number and class specified in the report.

For the purposes of any such environmental impact assessment, the Minister concerned is to consult the Planning Minister if the activity is likely to significantly affect threatened species. However, consultation is not required if the proponent has obtained a biodiversity development assessment report in accordance with Division 2.

Subsection (3) does not apply if the Minister concerned is the Planning Minister.

In consulting under this section, the Planning Minister is to provide the Minister who is the consent authority or the determining authority with the recommendations the Planning Minister considers appropriate.

The Minister who is the consent authority or the determining authority is to give public notice of any such recommendation that the Minister has not accepted.

In this section—