Senate Economics Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 1:48:36 to 1:54:06
The agency provides updates on environmental plan assessment times, the impact of litigation on consultation standards, and how greenhouse gas emissions are factored into project approvals.
Topics: EPBC Act, First Nations, Climate change
Speakers: Sue McCarrey, Cameron Grebe, Senator Susan McDonald, Speaker 14, Speaker 1
>> Well, that's a really difficult uh question to answer, Senator, because depending on the type there are quite a range of people who are involved in environmental assessments depending on the type of assessment that we receive. First of all, we have a a small team that works with the rest of the organization on that primary approval, the OP, the um the project approval stage. Then we have a number of inspectors across the organization sitting both in RORO uh mainly in RORO who actually deal with uh environmental plans as they come in and then depending on the actual subject matter or the activity that the environment plan is subject to that actually depends on who forms a group that actually assesses that environment plan. So to actually give it an accurate figure is difficult. I could uh
>> so it's 100 of all assessments and about a third of those are
>> all right. So I think as Mr. Blair has just sort of helped clarify for me uh around 100 of our ASL support assessments and I think we could perhaps safely say around onethird would deal with environment but again it depends almost on a day-to-day basis.
>> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. How many of those staff have responsibilities relating to greenhouse gas emissions and to scope 3 emissions?
>> Uh thank you Senator. Again in relation to that it actually depends first of all uh when it comes to actual scope 3 emissions. It's only assessed as part of an environment plan where it is relevant uh as the actual activity the subject of the environment plan. there are direct or indirect impacts from greenhouse gas emissions. So it's not with every environment plan that comes in. It's only where it is relevant to the activity being undertaken. Uh again we whenever an environment plan comes in, a team is actually formed with a range of different expertise depending on the actual uh subject matter and the activity of that environment plan. We do have in our organization a number of people who are specialized in a field not so much so scope three I'm actually talking about now greenhouse gas emissions and the impact on the environment and I think we have around two uh staff in the organization where that is that specialist field if we need to though we do at times go externally for advice if we need to
>> right how has increased staffing capacity affected nose's ability to assess environmental assessments ments including assessment times and outstanding applications.
>> Uh thank you Senator. We we generally don't have a a backlog of outstanding um assessments and environment plans. What we have achieved um is I think the last time we spoke I think we were down to around 9 to 10 months as an average for an environment plan. as of the end of third quarter 2026 we actually have it down to it's 264 days or 8.8 Pete months uh that is the average at this stage for environment plans. So yes those staff an increase in staff has helped as I said that was particularly bringing in a specialist team to help us deal with the consultation requirements after litigation after court cases uh in a sense uh clarified for us what the law required according to the courts. Because of that we brought in that specialist that has actually helped reduce the time because until we did that we actually had those perhaps without that expertise trying to assess a major shift in those environment plans that was required but by bringing [clears throat] in that specialist team that's actually helped reduce that approval time uh substantially. Um I
think each estimates you make an improvement on uh the the length of time and I I think that's that's helpful to everybody, isn't it? Uh on average, how many staff members are involved in assessing a single offshore project
>> Oh, look, Senator, I I'll hand to Mr. Griev, but again, it it all depends on the size of the actual project that is the subject of the offshore project proposal. uh and then again it depends uh we have a small team that deals with those but then they reach into the remainder of the organization depending on the expertise they need but I'm happy to hand over to Mr. GE.
>> Thank you, Senator Cameron Grebe, deputy chief executive offer officer strategic regulation improvement. Uh, typically the team that Sue mentioned, M. McCary mentioned in my area that leads the OP assessments for which the CEO is a decision maker comprises three people. Uh, and one of those will always lead an assessment and the manager and director of that team will be involved. There's two, but typically then there'll be two to four expertise drawn from um, Mr. Blair's division that may have expertise in the relevant environmental subject matter that's relevant for that project. Uh we do also maintain a panel of environmental consultants externally where we need to reach out to external parties. I should also clarify there is also advice sought from other government departments such as the clean energy regulator in relation to assessments of offshore project proposals as well.
rotate and come back. Yeah, please. >> Senator PCO,