Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated ActsActions on Commonwealth land
(1) A person must not take on Commonwealth land an action that has, will have or is likely to have a significant impact on the environment.
Civil penalty:
(a) for an individual--1,000 penalty units;
(b) for a body corporate--10,000 penalty units.
Actions outside Commonwealth land affecting that land
(2) A person must not take outside Commonwealth land an action that:
(a) has or will have a significant impact on the environment on Commonwealth land; or
(b) is likely to have a significant impact on the environment on Commonwealth land.
Civil penalty:
(a) for an individual--1,000 penalty units;
(b) for a body corporate--10,000 penalty units.
Exceptions to prohibitions
(3) Subsection (1) or (2) does not apply to an action if:
(a) an approval of the taking of the action by the person is in operation under Part 9 for the purposes of the subsection; or
(b) Part 4 lets the person take the action without an approval under Part 9 for the purposes of the subsection; or
(d) there is in force a decision of the Minister under Division 2 of Part 7 that the subsection is not a controlling provision for the action and, if the decision was made because the Minister believed the action would be taken in a manner specified in the notice of the decision under section 77, the action is taken in that manner; or
(e) the action is an action described in subsection 160(2) (which describes actions whose authorisation is subject to a special environmental assessment process); or
(f) the person taking the action is the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth agency.
Note 1: This section protects (among other things) the Commonwealth Heritage values of a Commonwealth Heritage place on Commonwealth land, because the heritage values of a place are part of the environment. See the definition of environment in section 528.
Note 2: Section 28 regulates actions by the Commonwealth or a Commonwealth agency with a significant impact on the environment.