The Environmental Protection Amendment Act 2020 is the most significant reform of Western Australia’s environmental legislation in more than 30 years. It introduces a raft of amendments to Western Australia’s primary environmental legislation – the Environmental Protection Act 1986 (EP Act).
The Environmental Protection Regulations Amendment (Publication and Confidentiality) Regulations 2021 provide the particulars that the CEO and Authority must keep public records of, and set out the process by which applicants may request that confidential information be withheld from publication. The regulations also give the CEO and Authority a discretionary power to redact certain types of information without having received a request that the information be kept confidential.
The regulations ensure that, consistent with current practice, applicants can request confidential information is not published.
To inform the development of the regulations, the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation released the draft Environmental Protection Regulations Amendment (Publication and Confidentiality) Regulations 2021 for public comment.
This report provides the department’s response to the feedback received, which has helped inform the final Publication and Confidentiality Regulations.
For more information go to Amendments to the Environmental Protection Act 1986.
