Hon Robin Chapple questions the Minister for Mines and Petroleum regarding the transparency of mining operations' environmental reports, specifically why consent is required for their release and what measures will be taken to improve transparency. The Minister clarifies the legal basis for report submission and availability, and states the department will review regulatory practices.

AnsweredQoN 2271Legislative Council
Asked
20 April 2010
Portfolio
Mines and Petroleum

QuestionView source ↗

I refer to my question on notice No. 1152, asked on 18 August 2009, and answered on 23 September, and I ask -
(1) Has the Department of Minerals and Petroleum obtained written consent from the relevant mining operations to release their annual environmental reports?
(2) If no to (1), does the Minister consider this level of transparency acceptable for an environmental assessment process conducted under the delegated authority of the
Environmental Protection Act
(where all such information is publicly available)?
(3) What measures will the Minister take to improve the environmental transparency of the Mining Industry?

AnswerView source ↗

Answered
18 May 2010
Responded by
Minister for Mines and Petroleum
Response time
28 days
(1) No
(2) The submission of annual environmental reports is not required under delegated authority of the
Environmental Protection Act 1986
, but is a tenement obligation by conditions imposed under the provisions of the
Mining Act 1978
.
These annual environmental reports can be made available by the Department of Mines and Petroleum either through the
Mining Act 1978
with the consent of the tenement holder, or through the provisions of the
Freedom of Information Act 1992
.
(3) The Department of Mines and Petroleum monitors and reviews its regulatory practices on an ongoing basis and I will take advice from the Department on appropriate changes.
Notice: This document is created or edited using unregistered or evaluation copy of rtLib valid for testing or development purposes only. To use it for productive or any other purposes please register it. You may purchase the license on
http://www.rtlib.com

Explore WA Government Data

Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.

Explore more