Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AND BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION ACT 1999 - SECT 12

  (1)   A person must not take an action that:

  (a)   has or will have a significant impact on the world heritage values of a declared World Heritage property; or

  (b)   is likely to have a significant impact on the world heritage values of a declared World Heritage property.

Civil penalty:  

  (a)   for an individual--5,000 penalty units;

  (b)   for a body corporate--50,000 penalty units.

  (2)   Subsection   (1) does not apply to an action if:

  (a)   an approval of the taking of the action by the person is in operation under Part   9 for the purposes of this section; or

  (b)   Part   4 lets the person take the action without an approval under Part   9 for the purposes of this section; or

  (c)   there is in force a decision of the Minister under Division   2 of Part   7 that this section is not a controlling provision for the action and, if the decision was made because the Minister believed the action would be taken in a manner specified in the notice of the decision under section   77, the action is taken in that manner; or

  (d)   the action is an action described in subsection   160(2) (which describes actions whose authorisation is subject to a special environmental assessment process).

  (3)   A property has world heritage values only if it contains natural heritage or cultural heritage. The world heritage values of the property are the natural heritage and cultural heritage contained in the property.

  (4)   In this section:

"cultural heritage" has the meaning given by the World Heritage Convention.

"natural heritage" has the meaning given by the World Heritage Convention.