Compliance audits

We audit approved projects and permits to make sure they're implemented in line with their approval conditions. Audit results help to improve our own processes. Learn how we identify projects and industries to audit in our Compliance Plan.

 

We audit projects approved under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). Projects with approval conditions might impact protected matters if not implemented correctly.

We also audit permits granted under the Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981.

Compliance audits help us to:

  • ensure approval and permit holders implement their project as planned
  • check how well approval and permit holders understand and apply the conditions of their approvals
  • improve the effectiveness of our operations.

Learn more about how we audit through our:

If you believe we need to audit a particular project, you can report a breach. 

Compliance plan

This plan covers projects across all sectors, including:

  • mining and energy
  • government
  • transport
  • ports and marine
  • urban development
  • tourism 
  • recreation.

We choose projects to audit based on a risk-focused strategic selection process, which focuses on projects within priority high-risk sectors.

Some projects have scheduled third-party audits or directed environmental audits written into their approvals.

The objectives of the compliance plan are to:

  • measure compliance with conditions attached to approval and permit decisions, and requirements outlined in particular manner decisions
  • identify any breaches and ensure they're appropriately addressed through education, remediation or enforcement actions
  • evaluate conditions and requirements for enforceability, comprehension and ease of assessment
  • demonstrate to the community that systems exist to measure and enforce compliance.

Read our Independent Audit and Audit Report Guidelines (2019).

Summaries of compliance audit findings

This table provides a summary of some recent audit findings.
EPBC Number (date) Project name Audit findings

EPBC 2010/5642 (2019)

RTA Weipa Pty Ltd - Amrun Project, Weipa, QLD
  • compliance with 154 sub-criteria
  • non-compliance with 1 sub-criterion
  • a finding of not applicable for 47 sub-criteria.

EPBC 2002/773 (2019)

Moorebank Intermodal Terminal Facility Project, Moorebank, NSW
  • compliance with 82 sub-criteria
  • non-compliance with 1 sub-criterion
  • a finding of not applicable for 23 sub-criteria.

EPBC 2011/6229 (2019)

SIMTA - Moorebank Intermodal Terminal Facility Project, Moorebank, NSW
  • compliance with 44 sub-criteria
  • non-compliance with 9 sub-criteria
  • a finding of not applicable for 19 sub-criteria.

Some audit findings appear on the approval holder's website. Please check their website first, and if you need further help, contact us on epbcmonitoring@dcceew.gov.au.

Older compliance audit findings

You'll find summaries of findings for projects audited since 2006 on the Trove Website Archive, maintained by the National Library of Australia.

Get in touch

Director, Environmental Audit Section
Environment Compliance Branch Australia
GPO Box 3090
Canberra ACT 2601
Email: epbcmonitoring@dcceew.gov.au