From Envirowiki

[edit] The Australian Constitution

Under s51 of the Australian constitution the commonwealth government has no direct power to legislate on environmental matters. This has traditionally left the states with the majority of power to legislate on environmental matters. However, on one or two occasions the federal government has used other powers that it has under the constitution, such as its external affairs power, to override the states decisions on environmentally harmful projects. This happened in the Tasmanian Dams case, sand mining on Fraser Island and oil exploration on the Great Barrier Reef.

[edit] Co-operative Federalism

Since the advent of co-operative federalism in the 1990, the Commonwealth government has gained more power in relation to environmental matters. Co-operative federalism established the Council of Australian Governments(COAG) and ministerial councils to help co-ordinate actions between state and federal governments and develop 's the commjoint policies. The Inter-governmental Agreement on the Environment(IGAE) in 1992 was another initiative that helped establish the different roles and responsibilities of the federal government.

[edit] EPBC Act

The Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 is the only piece of commonwealth environmental legislation. It's primary purpose is to provide domestic legislation to enforce some of the international treaties that Australia has ratified, such as the RAMSAR convention for the protection of wetlands.