Appendix B1 - Matter-specific Standard for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park has a special status, as it is the substantial part of a World Heritage area (listed in 1981) as well as a separate matter of national environmental significance. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park’s inclusion as a separate matter of national environmental significance ensures the assessment and approval processes of the EPBC Act are more clearly and completely applied to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park itself, particularly in relation to the management activities of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. The Marine Park is fundamental to and underpins regulation and management of the Great Barrier Reef.

This Standard should be applied in conjunction with the Overarching MNES Standard, relevant matter-specific Standards and other National Environmental Standards.

Definitions

Cumulative impacts: the collective impacts from all actions, decisions, plans, policies and other pressures, measured against a stipulated baseline. See Significant Impact Guidelines 1.2 (2013), Significant Impact Guidelines 1.3 (2013) and Reef 2050 Plan: Cumulative Impact Management Policy (2018) for further explanation of the concept of cumulative impacts.

Key threats: the threats to the Great Barrier Reef identified in Management Plans, Key Threatening Processes or Threat Abatement Plans as key threats to the Great Barrier Reef.

Offset: measures that may be used once it has been demonstrated that all reasonable steps have been taken to avoid and minimise impacts, that are provided to compensate, repair or replace an impacted value, including changes to the integrity, quality, condition and/or extent of habitat. Offsets must be consistent with the EPBC Act Environmental Offsets Policy (2012, as updated from time to time), or an accredited policy relating to offsets of a state or territory. Offsets must be achievable and ecologically feasible:

• An offset is achievable where demonstrated scientific knowledge exists on how to restore the habitat with a high confidence of success, and its long-term protection is assured (for example through conservation covenants or conservation agreements), and
• An offset is ecologically feasible where it can be demonstrated that the species or community can be reliably restored in a timeframe proportionate to effectively address the impact of the action and enough space exists to undertake restoration (not ecologically or tenure constrained).

Section 211 of the Native Title Act 1993: provides that holders of native title rights covering certain activities do not need authorisation required by other laws to engage in those activities.