State Envrionment Minister David Templeman has announced plans to increase fees paid by the State's 860 "licensed premises" over the next two years.
State Envrionment Minister David Templeman has announced plans to increase fees paid by the State's 860 "licensed premises" over the next two years.
The increase will apply to a wide range of businesses that require environmental licence approvals, from LNG plants to abbatoirs.
The full text of a company announcement is pasted below
Fees for the State's 860 licensed premises will be increased over the next two years to ensure industry covers the cost of monitoring their environmental compliance - not the community.
Environment and Climate Change Minister David Templeman said the licensing and works approval fees for licensed premises would rise on average about 50 per cent over the next two years according to the level of emissions and the amount of monitoring required.
Mr Templeman said the current cost of regulating environmental compliance far exceeded the fees collected, which meant the community was effectively subsidising industry's environmental obligations.
He said the fee hike would yield about $4million over two years for the department, enabling it to increase resources and carry out more regular crucial checks to ensure environmental compliance across the board.
The extra funds would lead to a more stringent monitoring regime and, ultimately, help speed up the approvals process.
The Minister said that the biggest companies would foot the lion's share of the fee increase, with 60 per cent of the revenue expected to come from the top 20 operations.
"I am sure industry will consider this a small price to pay to instill confidence in the community and protect our environment," he said.
The Department of Environment and Conservation currently licenses 860 premises throughout Western Australia from LNG plants to quarries.
"In 2006-07, the department received almost 2,000 complaints from the public about various premises," Mr Templeman said.
"While the majority are good corporate citizens, it is clear that some are failing to manage their operations properly and causing unacceptable levels of dust, odour or noise.
"The high cost of regulating industry and following up these complaints are greater than the amount collected in regulatory fees.
"This means the community is effectively subsidising the cost of industry's compliance."
The Minister said DEC currently collected about $8million a year from industry in environmental licence, registration and works approval fees. However, the current cost of regulation was around $11million.
Fee increases would be larger for industries with greater emissions to ensure those industries met the higher costs DEC faced in ensuring they were complying with their environmental obligations.
Registration fees would also increase, but this would not affect the 1,670 existing registered premises because it was a one-off payment.
The Minister said the Carpenter Government was committed to protecting WA's unique environment.
"This new fee structure will help ensure industry are fulfilling their obligations to the environment and to the community."
