In mid-late 2013, GBRMPA began developing a compliance management

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. ANAO Report No.3 2015–16 Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Permits and Approvals 110 officers responsible for making enforcement decisions. In addition, there is only limited guidance available to assist investigations staff to determine the appropriate circumstances for undertaking alternative responses, which includes: public education; advisory letters GBRMPA’s most frequent response to permit non-compliance; permit suspensions, variations and revocations; and prosecutions.

7.8 There is significant scope for GBRMPA to update and improve the

guidance available to its staff on initiating responses to non-compliance in accordance with its compliance policy. Such guidance could include: • factors to be considered when determining an appropriate response such as the nature and severity of the harm caused, the objectives of the law, the impact the contravention has on the integrity of the regulatory system, and any aggravating and mitigating circumstances; • examples of potential enforcement responses to common offences along with their advantages and disadvantages; and • clearly identifying the GBRMPAFMCU officers or their positions responsible for making enforcement decisions. Obtaining and recording non-compliance allegations and incidents

7.9 Sound processes to identify, refer and record non-compliance allow

regulators to undertake timely investigations, take proportionate enforcement action and facilitate the establishment of accurate and complete compliance histories that can be used for risk assessment purposes. GBRMPA’s draft Compliance Policy indicates that the effective management of compliance is reliant upon the gathering, management, analysis and dissemination of sound regulatory intelligence. To this end, the FMCU maintains a Compliance Management Information System CMIS database with on-line access to facilitate the recording, storage, searching and retrieval of compliance-related information.

7.10 A primary source of regulatory intelligence captured in the CMIS

database is formal incident reports. GBRMPA’s Compliance Management and Investigation Procedures require any allegation of non-compliance received by GBRMPA or FMCU partner agencies to be recorded in writing when received or as soon as practicable thereafter and forwarded to the FMCU for assessment. The FMCU has developed hard-copy and electronic templates available on