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Home straight for compliance and enforcement review
EPA’s largest ever community consultation came to a close in late October, with close to 300 Victorians providing input to the organisation’s Compliance and Enforcement Review currently underway.
EPA’s John Merritt said the fourteen ‘open house’ sessions which spanned the state from Bairnsdale to Portland, Wodonga and Mildura provided invaluable information to the review process.
“The consultation sessions were a first step for us to re-engage with the community and importantly with people who have had dealings with us, in some instances for many years,” he said.
“We also had a strong mix of small and large business and local council and other government agencies who used the sessions to learn more about EPA, contribute to the review and in some cases explore how better relationships can be established.
“The most common theme across the sessions was a desire to see a more effective environmental regulator. People want to see EPA do its job and be successful and in all of the sessions there was a willingness to support the EPA to improve.”
Mr Merritt said in addition to the community consultation sessions, EPA had also spoken to about 200 businesses across the state who had expressed a great deal of interest in the review.
“As an organisation, we need to ensure we have the best tools at hand in order to ensure the best outcomes for the environment. We believe we need to make changes as a regulator and the fact we have had such a strong response from the community and business speaks volumes,” he said.
EPA’s Compliance and Enforcement Review is being undertaken by former WorkSafe executive, Stan Krpan.
The review will look at the current regulatory model being used and will also consider key areas such as the contemporary practice of environment protection regulators interstate and internationally.
It will also consider whether the right regulatory tools exist and how they should be used in achieving compliance, while addressing a number of the recommendations made by both the Victorian Ombudsman and the Auditor-General.
The public comment period for the Review Discussion Paper also closed at the end of October with approximately 50 submissions received from a variety of stakeholders.
The final report and recommendations will be provided to EPA by the end of the year.
Visit the compliance-enforcement review webpage for more information