Development of EPBC regulatory synthesis for threatened ecological communities

The Department requires specialist expertise to develop products that support faster, more effective assessment of projects, particularly renewable energy projects. This project will primarily focus on one of the nine MNES regulated by the EPBC Act, threatened ecological communities that are commonly encountered during the assessment of renewable energy projects. This project will primarily constitute a desktop review and synthesis of existing documentation at both the Commonwealth and State levels, along with other peer-reviewed and grey literature, to collate established information on threatened ecological communities listed under the EPBC Act. The supplier will present this information as a Regulatory Synthesis Report with draft guidance under the EPBC Act to improve the transparency and consistency of regulatory decision making. The Regulatory synthesis and comprehensive draft guidance will set out the department’s regulatory approaches and expectations. Comprehensive guidance material will inform the departments development of regulatory guidance that describes how the threatened ecological communities should be assessed, and what is required in terms of survey data and other evidence. A template which highlights key regulatory considerations will be provided to the successful supplier to complete upon commencement of the contract. The template includes considerations for key topics, including:

• Listing information

• Regional context/s

• Occurrence

• Survey methods

• Habitat definitions and mapping

• Impact pathways

• Cumulative impacts

• Mitigation measures

• Unacceptable impacts

• Offsets.

The development of this Regulatory Synthesis will assist in developing regulatory guidance and communicating regulatory expectations for specific threatened ecological communities, with an initial set drawn from regions that most commonly trigger the need for an approval under national environment law. This project will not re-prosecute the listing decision of Threatened Ecological Communities. Where threatened ecological communities are listed under both State legislation and national environment law, the guidance will provide an opportunity to harmonise the approach being taken at each level of government. The project will use existing sources of information, and will not include species surveys, creation of new mapping or the development of new survey methodologies. Where gaps in the information contained in statutory documents are identified, these will be noted in the report for potential future action. The threatened ecological communities to be covered in this project are listed in Table1 of the ATM Document.