A new way of submitting public comments on EPBC Act referrals is now live as of Thursday 7 April 2022.

 

The new, online, dedicated EPBC Act Public Portal has been designed to replace the EPBC Act Public Notices and Have Your Say. It has been designed to improve the way in which we process referrals and capture feedback under the EPBC Act. As a member of the public, you'll be able to follow a project’s progress and comment when you have the opportunity.

Public comments for projects submitted in the new EPBC Act Business Portal will be made through the new EPBC Act Public Portal.

Referrals submitted via Online Services before 29 March will be concluded using the existing system with public comments made via the EPBC Act Public Notices and Have Your Say pages.

This project is part of the Australian Government's Digital Environmental Assessments Program (DEAP) initiative, which will help to:

  • streamline the current processes
  • integrate behind-the-scenes systems
  • create more transparency for all involved in environmental assessments.

For more information, visit the A new way of lodging referrals is coming in 2022 page.

The EPBC Act provides for a public comment period of 10 business days (with no extensions). A decision on whether a proposed action requires approval will be made within 20 business days. The outcome of the decision will be made publicly available on the web site.

Please note that all public comments will be considered by the decision-maker. However, we cannot guarantee that all comments will be acknowledged or responded to.

The following Referrals and Guidelines are published for public comment. Note: Public comment will be accepted until close of business on the deadline date below. If there are no documents attached please try again later. The documents are available as PDF files.

Please note: Submissions may be subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act 1982, and may be provided to third parties for procedural fairness purposes (also known as natural justice).

Public submissions are not normally confidential, however if you wish your submission to be treated by the department as confidential, please mark it clearly as 'confidential' and provide your reasons for it to be considered as such. The department will use its best endeavours to deal with the submission accordingly but this does not make it automatically exempt from release.
On 6 October 2015 the EPBC Referrals and Public Notices web pages were upgraded to a new system. This system allows for better searchability of EPBC referrals and associated public notices. The upgrade required a change to the url for the EPBC Referrals and Public Notices web page, so please ensure you have updated your bookmarks. EPBC Referrals and Public Notices can be accessed by selecting one of the tabs at the top of the page. The following instructions will help you determine which tab you should use to find the information you are looking for.

Referrals list will give you a searchable list of all referrals with the most recent at the top. You can use the search box on the left hand side to search EPBC numbers or keywords in the title of the referral. You can also limit the timeframe for the search using the period options, but if you leave these blank you will search all referrals.

Public notices – referrals will give you a searchable list of all notices published on referrals. You can use the search box on the left hand side to search notices by EPBC number, keywords in the title and look for specific keywords in the notification title. You can also limit the timeframe for the search using the period options, but if you leave these blank you will search all referrals.

Invitations to comment will give you a list of all active invitations to comment for EPBC referrals.Please note that other options such as invitation to comment on draft Assessment documentation can be found at Public notices – referrals.