Environment Protection Act 2019

An environmental audit is a documented evaluation of an action or mining activity and its environmental impact (including an evaluation of management practices, systems and plant) for any of the following purposes:

(a) to provide information to the persons managing the action on compliance with legal requirements, codes of practice and relevant policies relating to the protection of the environment;

(b) to enable persons to determine whether the way the action or mining activity is carried out can be improved in order to protect the environment;

(c) to assess the nature, type, intensity, magnitude and extent of environmental impacts;

(i) whether the action or mining activity is a prohibited action or is being, or has been, carried out in a protected environmental area and is prohibited in that area; and

(ii) if so, the nature and environmental impact of the action or mining activity;

(d) to assess whether environmental impacts have been, or are being, appropriately managed;

(e) to assess whether measures to minimise or remediate environmental harm or to rehabilitate the environment have been taken or have been effective;

(f) to assess the effectiveness of the safeguards or standards for the protection of the environment applied or adopted in relation to the action or mining activity;

(g) to obtain improved information as to the effectiveness and accuracy of the risk management processes and systems used to identify environmental impacts during the environmental impact assessment process;

(h) to assess the accuracy of forecasts of the environmental impacts of the action or mining activity.