The Office of Compliance was established on 1 July 2017, and undertakes compliance and enforcement in accordance with the Department of the Environment and Energy’s Compliance Policy.
We focus on serious non-compliance for a range of legislation including protection of threatened plants, animals and ecosystems, wildlife trade, hazardous waste, air quality and monitoring compliance with the conditions of approvals granted under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act)
The Department’s Corporate Plan sets out the Department’s strategic priorities, purposes and intended results or outcomes. To establish our priority compliance outcomes we refer to the Department’s strategic priorities.
The Department takes an ‘outcomes-based’ approach to compliance. This means that our compliance work is focussed on activities that help to achieve identified outcomes.
Our priority outcomes are published in the Department’s Compliance Plan 2019-23.
To identify priority compliance outcomes we collect and analyse data from a range of information sources, including feedback from the community, co-regulators and industry partners; results from monitoring activity; trends in non-compliance; and open source information.
Contacting us
To report a suspected breach of national environmental law you can report it online:
More information about the legislation we administer and information about compliance with these Acts can be obtained from the Department’s website at Legislation.
Publications
Environment Compliance Reform Program Summary
Compliance Framework
This document sets out the six core elements of the Department of the Environment and Energy’s approach to improving compliance with national environmental law – Intelligence, Risk analysis, Strategy, Monitoring, Operations, and Evaluation and reporting.
Compliance Policy
This document sets out the policy which supports the Department’s Regulatory Framework by outlining our approach to compliance. The policy aims to help the community understand how we encourage compliance and respond to potential contraventions of our laws. It sits within the context of broader Australian Government law enforcement policies.
Compliance Plan 2019-23
This document sets out the Department’s priority compliance outcomes for 2019-23 to ensure that our stakeholders are informed about our compliance priorities.
Office of Compliance Annual Compliance Plan 2018-19
This document sets out the priority compliance outcomes for the Department delivered through the Office of Compliance in 2018-19.