JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) said on Thursday that the recommendations of an independent inquiry into the Victoria Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) would increase red tape for the state’s mining industry.

The inquiry, which examined the EPA’s role, powers, governance and funding, made 48 recommendations, which the Victoria government was considering.

The Victorian division of the MCA took issue with the report stating that the mining industry did not face the same level of environmental regulation as other industries with a similar risk profile or scale.

“This is clearly inaccurate. The minerals industry is one of the most highly regulated industries and must abide by all state and relevant commonwealth environmental laws,” said MCCA executive director for Victoria Megan Davison.

Davison, who urged the Victorian government not to accept the recommendations in the report, stated that the recommendations could not be agreed to, unless the powers and functions of the Earth Resources Regulator and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning were removed and a “true one-stop-shop” for regulation of the minerals industry was established through the EPA.

The MCA stated that the EPA did not possess the technical ability to advise on the range of complex issues considered in licensing the minerals industry.

“Inaccurate or inconsistent advice provided by the EPA and a lack of decision-making capability causes significant delays and impacts the operability of sites.  The sector most recently experienced this when the EPA took 11 months to determine that a specific project did not require an EPA works approval or licence,” Davison said.

The MCA added that the EPA did not have the ability to be responsible for compliance and enforcement of the environmental conditions on a mining site, and rehabilitation requirements, listing a number of environmental conditions that did not fit within the EPA’s remit, including native vegetation clearance and biodiversity offsets. 

“Rather than an efficient, whole of government regulatory regime, the industry is experiencing a further fracturing of the approval process with each regulator not only protecting their ‘patch’ but expanding it.  Everything recommended by the inquiry related to the minerals industry is already regulated by one or more state regulators.”

Davison noted that Victoria ranked poorly in yearly global investor sentiment surveys, owing to uncertainty concerning the administration, interpretation and enforcement of existing regulations; uncertainty concerning environmental regulations and regulatory duplication and inconsistencies.