Environmental Law

At the start of last month, the New South Wales government enacted the Environmental Legislation Amendment Act 2022 (NSW). The Act amends the environmental protection legislation in New South Wales to, among other things, impose financial and criminal liability on directors, related bodies corporate and directors of related bodies corporate who receive a financial or economic (a ‘monetary’) benefit from an environmental offence. A reference to director broadly extends to a person involved in the management of the affairs of the company.

In the second reading speech, Felicity Wilson MP announced that, ‘[e]nvironmental legislation needs to be continually improved to ensure that those who commit crimes pay for them’. She stated that the environmental protection laws in New South Wales should be updated to address evolving criminal behaviours in the sphere which she described as ‘unscrupulous business models’. These practices have left the New South Wales Government with significant clean-up costs (with the Truegain Pty Ltd oil refinery site alone costing the Government $20 million in prevention and remediation efforts).

The amendments brought about by the Act create some of the strongest environmental liability provisions in the country.

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