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Tony Circelli interviews Professor Neil Gunningham on “The Role of a modern Regulator?”
29/11/2016
Professor Gunningham is a highly respected regulatory expert and an inter-disciplinary social scientist working principally in the areas of environmental and energy law, regulation and governance.
“Next generation regulation – to accomplish substantive compliance with regulatory goals by any viable means using whatever regulatory or quasi-regulatory tools that might be available, in ways that facilitate compliance, at least administrative cost and in a manner that encourages innovation.”
What should next generation regulation look like? What would it mean to be a ‘modern regulator’?
WATCH VIDEO (duration 31:48 mins)
This video features an interview between AELERT’s Chair, Tony Circelli and Professor Gunningham.
If you would prefer to watch the video in bite size pieces:
WATCH PART ONE (duration 12:22 mins)
WATCH PART TWO (duration 09:22 mins)
WATCH PART THREE (duration 10:48 mins)
ABOUT PROFESSOR NEIL GUNNINGHAM
Professor Neil Gunningham is a lawyer and interdisciplinary social scientist who holds joint appointments in the Regulatory Institutions Network and the School of Resources, Environment and Society at the Australian National University. Previously he was Foundation Director of the Australian Centre for Environmental Law at the ANU, Visiting and Senior Fulbright Scholar at the Centre for the Study of Law and Society, University of California, Berkeley, and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for the Analysis of Risk and Regulation at the London School of Economics. He is also a consultant to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and to various environmental and occupational health and safety regulatory agencies in Australia. His research has been concerned to identify the contribution that broader, innovative forms of regulation can make to safety, health and environmental policy. Further background information can be found here.
AELERT Survelliance Survey Follow Up
22/11/2016
We want to hear more from you.
We recently posted a survey regarding the use of surveillance equipment across the AELERT Network. Thank you to those that participated.
If you haven’t had a chance, please complete the survey here.
For those that did participate, we have some more questions for you. Please give us five minutes of your time so we can further enhance our knowledge of surveillance techniques across the network.
If you don't use surveillance technology in your role but know of someone in your agency who does, we would love it if you would forward this survey link to them.
For more information, please contact the AELERT Secretariat at secretariat@aelert.net.
North West Business Partnership Wins Tasmanian EPA Sustainability Award 2016
10/11/2016
Two North West businesses have formed a winning partnership, converting pyrethrum waste into clean biofuel briquettes as a substitute for coal, and taking home the prestigious EPA Sustainability Award at this year’s Tasmanian Community Achievement Awards.
Greenham Tasmania of Smithton and Botanical Resources Australia (BRA) of Ulverstone won the EPA Sustainability Award for their ‘Pyrethrum Marc Briquettes – Biofuel for Boilers from Waste Product’ from a strong field of entrants this year.
PICTURE: Warren Jones (centre), Chair of the EPA Board presenting the EPA Sustainability Award 2016 to Ray Howe, Production Manager, BRA and Robert Cox, Plant Manager, Greenham Tasmania
They were amongst four finalists showcased at the Community Achievement Awards presentation evening at the Hotel Grand Chancellor in Hobart on Saturday 5 November. The event, celebrating its tenth year, was attended by 360 guests including the Honourable Matthew Groom MP, Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage. It culminated a tremendously successful year with 180 nominations received across nine separate award categories.
Mr Warren Jones, Chair of the EPA Board, presented the EPA Sustainability Award to the joint applicants, Greenham’s Robert Cox and BRA’s Ray Howe. He said that it had been a difficult task for the judges this year, firstly to select the finalists from an inspiring array of applicants, and secondly to choose the winner of these.
“Although we felt that several of the initiatives were worthy of the Award, there could only be one winner,” said Mr Jones.
“We selected the joint project by the two regional companies, Greenham and BRA, as the winner because it best met the EPA’s criteria for the Award, was innovative and embodied the concept of environmental sustainability,”.
“The project involves the direct conversion of a waste product into clean biofuel energy, delivering a cheaper energy source, lower emissions and reduced transport and trucking in the area."
"It provides clean and carbon neutral air-emissions with significant benefits for the environment but there are also clear flow-on benefits for the local community and regional industry, and this is what ‘sustainable development’ is all about." he said.
BRA is a global leader in the production of the 100 per cent natural insecticide active, pyrethrins, extracted from Australian grown pyrethrum daisies, while HW Greenham and Sons is a meat processing business, whose Smithton plant produces some of the world's best grassfed beef under the Cape Grim label.
After extensive R&D, plant modification and capital investment by both companies, the waste flower material from the BRA pyrethrum process is now converted into biofuel briquettes, which has replaced the use of coal in Greenham’s boiler. “Greenham now solely burns the pyrethrum briquettes and has reduced air emissions by more than 75 per cent and a reduction of carbon intensity of above 90 per cent,” said Mr Jones.
“The result is revenue from waste and a source of clean, carbon neutral energy,” he said.
Whilst congratulating Greenham and BRA as the winner of the EPA Sustainability Award, Mr Jones also acknowledged the other three finalists - Bell Bay Aluminium for its dross recycling furnace, the University of Tasmania for its transport strategy and Andrew Walter Constructions for its Bunnings Mornington project.
The EPA and commends the worthy projects submitted by the other finalists, as well as acknowledging all the entrants this year.
International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE) Membership Survey
08/11/2016
In order to more effectively engage members, offer better compliance and enforcement resources, and identify opportunities to strengthen the Network, INECE has developed a short Membership Survey. The deadline for responses has been extended to December 1. The survey is accessible HERE.
The specific purposes of this survey are to:
- develop a demographic profile of INECE members;
- evaluate the frequency and duration of members’ contact with the Network;
- understand which functions INECE members expect a global compliance and enforcement network to serve;
- measure members’ satisfaction with INECE’s performance of these functions; and
- gauge interest in a paid membership that would provide access to special resources.
Survey responses will be kept confidential; no information identifying you, your country, or your organisation will be made public. We appreciate your engagement and anticipate this survey requiring no more than 15 minutes of your time. If you have questions or comments, please contact the Secretariat at inece@inece.org.
PODCAST: Dr. Chris McGrath presents "Implications of the R v Baden-Clay [2016] HCA 35 for environmental prosecutions".
08/11/2016
What does one of Queensland’s most notorious murder trials have to do with vegetation clearing? How are Baden-Clay’s actions on the night of the murder and afterwards relevant to trying to prove the take of a natural resource in a national park?
The High Court’s recent decision in R v Baden-Clay [2016] HCA 35 has important implications for environmental prosecutions particularly where circumstantial evidence such as post-offence conduct is relied upon to establish the guilt of an offender.
Environmental compliance officers, investigators and lawyers should be aware of its implications for issues such as proving vegetation clearing and similar offences where satellite imagery is relied upon to establish elements of an offence but there is no direct evidence of the identity of the offender.
Applying the decision, for instance, where the identity of the person who unlawfully cleared land is uncertain, the fact that the landholder has not reported the clearing and has proceeded to farm the cleared land can be used as evidence of post-offence conduct to establish the landholder authorised or carried out the clearing.
This podcast discusses the case in the context of the recent failed attempt to reverse the onus of proof for vegetation clearing offences in Queensland. This raises policy issues beyond vegetation clearing offences and for other jurisdictions.
Download the Slides
Download the Handout
THE SPEAKER
Dr Chris McGrath is a barrister and a Senior Lecturer (Environmental Regulation) at the University of Queensland. He holds a BSc, LLB (Hons), LLM and PhD. He teaches Environmental Litigation at the Australian National University. Before being called to the Bar, he worked as an enforcement officer for the then Queensland Environmental Protection Agency.
