ALCA supports the modest steps forward for the environment being proposed in the SA Biodiversity Act, albeit with concerns about the lack of legislative primacy, and that the opportunity to deliver offsets with an absolute net gain to biodiversity has been missed.
Whilst ALCA would hope for more ambition, the draft Biodiversity Act will still advance the environmental legislative architecture in South Australia, including, in particular:
- The ability of the Minister to declare 'critical habitat' which would be harder to clear or destroy
- The creation of a general duty not to harm biodiversity (albeit with caveats)
- The provision of third-party standard to pursue most penalties under the Act (although not the general duty)
- The intention to modernise SA's process for listing threatened species and threatened ecological communities
- The confirmation that the environmental offsetting fund will again be able to be utilised to acquire property when it is appropriate to do so.
However, ALCA is concerned that the legislation does not have legislative primacy (i.e. it is still overridden by other pieces of legislation) and that there is not requirement for offsetting to deliver a net gain to the environment.
