WA Environment Minister Albert Jacob has revealed that his agencies haven't prosecuted any organisation for breaching a licence, works approval or ministerial condition in more than two years.
That's despite the Department of Environment Regulation recording more than 130 breaches and exceedances under Part V of the Environment Protection Act 1986, which deals with matters including licensing.
Responding to questions on notice from Shadow Environment Minister Chris Tallentire, Jacob told State Parliament on Tuesday that the Department hasn't launched any prosecutions for breaches of licence conditions since 2012, and hasn't initiated any in the past five years for breaches of a works approval.
And in an extraordinary admission, Jacob revealed that although the department launched seven prosecutions for licence breaches between 2010 and 2012, four of them were withdrawn.
The withdrawn prosecutions had been launched against Cockburn Cement Ltd (over lime kiln dust), the Shire of Dardanup (burning waste at its landfill), Eclipse Resources Pty Ltd (failure to pay levies on multiple occasions), and Jongro Pty Ltd, trading as Crown Mushrooms (odour).
Jacob also told Parliament that the Office of the EPA (OEPA) hasn't initiated any prosecutions for non-compliance with Ministerial conditions in the past five years.
Numerous breaches
A paper tabled by the Minister shows that the Department of Environment Regulation learned of 134 non-compliances from 2012 to date, including 51 so far this financial year.
But instead of exercising its official powers, DER has frequently opted to rely on field notices and letters of warning that are not backed by legislation.
In many cases, it has issued no warning or notice, and closed matters after compliance inspections on the basis that the companies concerned took "corrective action".
Companies that have had non-compliant actions dealt with in this way, without any form of official or unofficial reprimand, include Inghams, CSBP, Alcoa and Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines.
The paper tabled by Jacob is the first document to comprehensively list environmental breaches in recent years by companies operating in Western Australia, as the DER does not maintain public registers of licence-holder annual statements or departmental compliance actions.
Direct Action best for Wheatstone
Jacob also reiterated in Parliament that he would not re-impose on Chevron's Wheatstone project State greenhouse gas mitigation or offsetting conditions that were lifted when the federal carbon price scheme entered into force.
Asked by Tallentire what regulation he considered suitable for such a large emitter, Jacob responded that Direct Action was "the most appropriate mechanism to regulate greenhouse gas emissions".
