The FMCU has established processes for collecting, analysing and

ANAO Report No.3 2015–16 Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Permits and Approvals 92

6. Managing Compliance

This chapter examines GBRMPA’s management of permit holders’ compliance with permit conditions. Introduction

6.1 The GBRMP Regulations allow GBRMPA to grant permits ‘subject to any

conditions appropriate to the attainment of the objects of the Act’. 93 In this regard, GBRMPA imposes permit conditions that it considers are necessary to manage the risks to the Marine Park posed by proposed activities. As a consequence, permit holders’ continuing compliance with permit conditions is a key means by which risks to the Marine Park are managed.

6.2 GBRMPA’s EAP Section and the FMCU are jointly responsible for

monitoring permit holders’ compliance with permit conditions. The ANAO examined compliance monitoring arrangements, including: • compliance management planning relevant to permits and permitted activities; • the processing of permit amendments mostly in response to requests from permit holders; • the monitoring of post-approval reporting requirements established by permit conditions which generally relate to the submission, assessment andor approval of management plansreports; • field compliance operations undertaken by GBRMPA and partner agencies, including aerial and vessel patrols of the Marine Park; and • supplementary permit monitoring activity, including targeted site inspections—discretionary activities undertaken by GBRMPA to address identified compliance risks or risks to the Marine Park. 94 93 GBRMP Regulation 88ZE1. 94 The ANAO examined a sample of GBRMP permits current at the time that the sample was selected August 2014. The sample of 116 permits from a population of 1158 current permits that had been approved in 2013 or earlier—10 per cent of the population—was broadly selected in proportion with 12 key parameters of the population, including the permit’s: risk level; status; permission types and year of approval. The ANAO examined monitoring activity undertaken by GBRMPA and FMCU in the period from July 2012 to November 2014.