Discussion over the potential overlap of Commonwealth and state jurisdictions over environmental and resource development approvals has been a feature of this policy sector for more than three decades. During the late 1970s and 1980s, the Commonwealth was seen as being more sensitive to environmental concerns than the pro-development states, but that wasn’t the case during the era of the Coalition government from 2013-2022.

A short briefing note entitled “Avenues for Settlement of Conflict over the Divisions of State/Commonwealth Environmental Powers” was prepared by an officer of the Queensland Public Service in 1989 and lucidly explains the issues as they were at that date. Since that time, the Constitution has not been changed by referendum, but the states referred some of their constitutional authority over the Murray Darling Basin to the Commonwealth, although their residual reserve statutory powers for natural resource management remained in place.

Also, the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 came into effect later, significantly changing the statutory situation.

The identity of the author has been redacted from this document to protect public service confidentiality, but is available for bone fide researchers upon negotiation. Copyright in the document is owned by the Queensland Government.

Current situation

The current status of environmental policy is worse than in 1989. Scientists despair at the reflexive approval by both state and Commonwealth governments of development projects that cause immense environmental harm, despite all scientific cautions, and despite the adoption by all of those governments of the precautionary principle via the National Strategy for Environmentally Sustainable Development in 1992.

Since 1989, climate science has firmly placed the dangers to humanity of continued release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Yet, as recently as the week in which this post is being placed on QSN, the Northern Territory Government has approved of a major gas production project in the Betaloo Basin with a range of hydrological, geophysical and climate -related disbenefits.

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