Consulting: How and why

Does the Environment Protection Act contain an element of public consultation?

The Environment Protection Act (2002) contains an element of public consultation but it is essentially different from the Development Planning Act. Article 10 (1) specifies that regulations shall not be made unless the minister shall have first published a draft of the proposed regulations in the Government Gazette.

This should allow four at least for weeks for representations to be made to the Minister or the Authority or both, stating how the proposed regulations do not sufficiently protect the environment or how they are too unnecessarily restrictive or cause hardship or economic loss and asking for a revision.

In essence, the public consultations on the planning aspect are much wider and more receptive while those on the environment side, while providing less scope, give the public more defined parameters. It is arguably beyond the scope of this paper to propose legal amendments. However, one might point out that the law should be aiming at principle and that directions should be given in guidelines.