This stage of the EPBC Act approval relates to deciding whether an approval is required under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Protection Act 1999 (Cth) (“EPBC Act”), and how the approval should be done. This is known as a “controlled action decision”.

1. Under the "EPBC Act" an action that is likely to have a significant impact on a matter of national environmental significance must be referred to the Minister for Environment Protection, Heritage and the Arts (“the Minister”).
2. When an action is referred to the Minister, he or she must first decide if the proposal requries approval (known as a "controlled action") under the EPBC Act.
3. Unless the proponent states that they think the action is a controlled action, the Minister must publish referrals on the Internet and invite public comments. The time limit for public comment is 10 days.

Once the Minister makes a decision as to whether an EPBC Act approval is required the Minister must publish a notice of the decision within 10 days.

Section 74B of the EPBC Act allows the Minister to make a decision to reject a referred proposal where ”it is clear that the action would have unacceptable impacts on a matter protected by a provision of Part 3”.

This differs from the decision discussed above. In the controlled action decision (under section 75) the Minister decides whether the referred proposal is likely to have an impact on a Part 3 matter, if it is then the proposal will be required to undergo further environmental impact assessment. When making a clearly unacceptable impact decision the Minister rejects the proposal outright without requiring any further environmental effects studies.

On 1 July 2009 the Minister had used this power six times.

For more information on the ways that environmental impacts are assessed under the EPBC Act see: EPBC Act methods of environmental impact assessment.

• The EPBC Act on Austii

• Austraian Government - Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts - EPBC Act home

• Austraian Government - Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts - EPBC Act recent notices