Environmental Protection Act 1994

Subject to subsections (3) and (4), the administering authority must decide to—

approve the application; or

if the application is for an amalgamated local government authority or amalgamated project authority—refuse the application.

The administering authority must decide the amalgamation application—

within 20 business days after the day the application is received; or

if the applicant agrees to extend the period mentioned in paragraph (a) by not more than 10 business days—within the extended period.

The administering authority may only approve an application for an amalgamated local government authority if—

the applicant is a local government; and

the relevant activities for the existing environmental authorities do not constitute a significant business activity; and

the administering authority is satisfied there is an appropriate degree of integration between the activities.

The administering authority may only approve an application for an amalgamated project authority if it is satisfied the relevant activities for the existing environmental authorities are being carried out as a single integrated operation.

If the administering authority approves an application for an amalgamated project authority for environmental authorities for which PRCP schedules also apply, each of the schedules must also be amalgamated.

The conditions of the amalgamated environmental authority may vary from the conditions imposed on the existing environmental authorities—

to the extent necessary for, or to avoid duplication because of, the amalgamation; and

only if the applicant agrees in writing to the variation.

In this section—significant business activity has the meaning given by the Local Government Act 2009, section 43.