To improve the effectiveness of permit compliance monitoring, the

ANAO Report No.3 2015–16 Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Permits and Approvals 108 • civil remedies including fines through infringement notices ranging from one to 12 penalty units 120 ; and • criminal penalties a maximum of three years jail andor a fine of 2000 penalty units—for matters related to permit breaches. 7.3 GBRMPA’s broad strategies to address the range of non‐compliance are illustrated in Figure 7.1. Figure 7.1: Graduated range of enforcement responses Incr easi ng l e ve l o f non -com p liance Source: GBRMPA Compliance Management Strategy draft.

7.4 While

the overall compliance management policy and strategy remain in draft form, the GBRMPA Chair approved a compliance management policy statement for public release in January 2014—Policy Statement for Compliance Management in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. The policy statement is designed to provide stakeholders and users of the Marine Park with an understanding of GBRMPA’s approach to the management of compliance in relation to both permitted activities and activities not subject to a permit. However, as at June 2015, this policy statement had yet to be released. 120 Commonwealth legislation generally specifies fines for offences as ‘penalty units’ rather than a dollar amount. This allows the Government to increase fines through amending one piece of legislation the Crimes Act 1914. Since December 2012, one penalty unit has equated to 170. ANAO Report No.3 2015–16 Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Permits and Approvals 109

7.5 To support and guide its regulatory compliance activities, GBRMPA has

developed a range of materials to assist investigatory and enforcement activities. Those materials directly relevant to permit compliance include: • Compliance Management and Investigation Procedures last updated in January 2010—outline the specific requirements that inspectors are to meet when undertaking investigations and investigation-related activities on behalf of GBRMPA; • Caution and Infringement Notice System: Guidelines and Procedures draft—to inform inspectors of the considerations relevant to, and procedures for, proceeding with issuing cautions and infringement notices; and • Mooring Compliance Management Guidelines undated—to inform and guide field and administrative staff that are responsible for managing mooring compliance in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area.

7.6 GBRMPA’s Compliance Management and Investigations Procedures, which

are based on the 2003 version of the Australian Government Investigations Standards 121 , is the primary document used by the FMCU to manage non-compliance incidents and undertake investigations. The procedures, among other things, clearly outline the key investigation requirements, such as the qualification requirements for inspectors, the manner in which non-compliance referrals are to be handled, and case planning and practice requirements.

7.7 The procedures also emphasise the importance of documenting critical

decisions and the basis on which they were made throughout the course of investigations. While acknowledging the sound procedural guidance available to FMCU staff with responsibility for conducting investigations, the established guidance for determining appropriate enforcement responses is limited to that contained in the Caution and Infringement Notice System: Guidelines and Procedures. These guidelines and procedures only list some considerations relevant to any decision to issue caution and infringement notices, do not align well with other compliance and investigation procedures 122 , and do not clearly identify the 121 The Australian Government Investigation Standards were revised in August 2011. 122 While the GBRMPA Complexity and Priority Model discussed earlier provides examples of common permit breaches and categorises them according to their impact, the five-point categorisation scale Insignificant, Minor, Moderate, Major and Extreme applied by the model does not align well to the Low, Medium and High impact rating scale used in the Caution and Infringement Notice System: Guidelines and Procedures to determine appropriate enforcement responses.