The EPA has issued a clear warning to business - understand the law, your obligations and ensure you are complying. The EPA intends to reinstate its role as the regulator and authority on the environment in Victoria. It intends to be more consistent, more transparent and take more responsibility. It expects business to do the same.

The 400-page report contains over 100 recommendations for reform of the regulator. While the EPA will still support sustainability, innovation and companies that go 'beyond compliance', the focus is on compliance and enforcement.

The Review recommends that the EPA significantly increase its level of compliance monitoring and increase the level of enforcement and prosecutions. The EPA will also take more responsibility for decision-making and provision of expertise, which to date has often been delegated to auditors at great expense to industry.

Other important recommendations include:

  • The EPA implementing a pilot scheme for review of enforcement decisions by authorised officers, namely pollution abatement notices and clean-up notices.
  • Adopt a risk-based and responsive regulatory model, and clearly communicate its activities in the context of its regulatory role.

Given the Review and its recommendations, it is now more important than ever for business to exercise due diligence, to ensure that environmental management systems are up-to-date, understood and implemented.

The Review represents an important change to the role and culture of the EPA. The recommendations for improvement of the EPA's performance in terms of consistency and transparency are likely to be supported by industry. However the practical implications and effects of the Review will depend on the detail of how the recommendations are implemented by the EPA.

A full copy of the reportcan be accessed here.

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