The NSW Environment Protection Authority (NSW EPA) now has more power to hold waste criminals to account under new laws.
Announcing the passage of the Environment Legislation Amendment Bill 2021, Minister for the Environment, James Griffin said the new laws would stop innocent landowners and Government footing the bill for illegal dumping and contaminated land.
“When our environmental laws were introduced decades ago, they were powerful and used as the benchmark around Australia, but now is the right time to strengthen them again,” Mr Griffin said.
“Criminal behaviour has evolved since then, which is why we’ve created powerful amendments to strengthen the law so waste criminals can’t exploit and profit from loopholes,” he said.
“In the past three years, these loopholes have seen more than 132,000 tonnes of contaminated waste being illegally dumped in NSW, and the Government or innocent landholders being left with substantial clean-up costs.”
Mr Griffin said changes to the law would ensure current and former directors of corporate bodies were held responsible for their crimes; hold to account related companies that benefitted from a crime; and enable NSW EPA to act against the owners of vehicles involved in illegal waste dumping.
He said the Bill also introduced new and increased maximum penalties, to further deter criminal behaviour, and increased protections for officers investigating environmental offences so they could do their jobs safely.
The Minister said the new laws ensured that if land was subdivided or sold, or if a licence was surrendered, the ongoing management of contaminated sites was maintained and not left to Government or future landholders to manage.
“These changes will ensure those responsible for contamination and pollution can be made to clean it up or manage it into the future,” Mr Griffin said.
