What is regulation?
Regulation is a tool for achieving the government’s social, economic and environmental objectives. Regulation applies a set of instruments, tools and approaches to influence or compel individuals and organisations to behave in a way that enables these objectives to be achieved.
How we regulate
As the state’s primary water and environmental regulator, our job is to ensure that the functions required under our legislation are executed, and that the obligations and rules outlined in our legislation are met, to enable the sustainable management and protection of Western Australia’s water and environment. We undertake a wide range of activities to ensure the objectives of our Acts are met:
- we assess potential impacts on our environment from certain activities to determine if those impacts are acceptable
- we assess the take of water from the state’s water resources to ensure they are sustainable now and into the future
- we work to ensure legacy contamination is identified and addressed to protect human health and the environment
- we also provide advice into the planning system to ensure environmental and water resource outcomes are achieved
- we promote, monitor and enforce compliance
- we respond to emerging water and environmental risks and issues.
Our ‘regulatory cycle’ outlines how our activities connect and contribute to the achievement of our vision and mission and inform the review, reform and delivery of our legislation and policies.
Our principles of better regulatory practice
Our activities are guided by a set of better regulatory practice principles. These clearly outline what you can expect from us:
Risk based
The department makes regulatory decisions proportionate to the level of risk posed to public health, the environment and water resources with consideration of cumulative impacts. Department resources are targeted to the greatest risks to public health, the environment and water resources.
Evidence based
The department applies an evidence-based approach based on the best available information, including sound science, to inform regulatory decision-making.
Transparent
The department:
- consults with stakeholders in relation to proposed regulatory policies and plans
- provides clear publicly available, reliable and relevant information on regulatory processes and requirements
- is informed by the public when considering regulatory decision-making
- applies the rules of procedural fairness to all regulatory functions.
Collaborative
The department works collaboratively with other regulators to share information, avoid unnecessary regulatory duplication, and support whole-of-government outcomes.
Consistent
The department’s regulatory actions are consistent with legislation and within statutory powers.
Responsive and effective
The department responds in an effective and timely manner.
You will see these principles reflected throughout our regulatory policies and guidance and some principles will be the subject of further specific guidance. We are currently reviewing our assessment and decision-making processes across our regulatory deliveries to build a clearer understanding of how we consider impacts on the environment and water resources. This will enable us to transition to a more outcomes-based impact-assessment approach, focused on better practice environmental management.
Collaboration and engagement
The environmental, waste management and water resource management challenges we face as a society require multifaceted interventions, designed collaboratively and delivered collectively.
We recognise that being a successful regulator depends on strong relationships and that collaborating with others leads to better outcomes. We seek to build strong relationships with our co-regulators at all levels of government, our partner organisations, our stakeholders and the Western Australian community, as well as those we regulate.
We believe in harnessing the capability of all sectors and stakeholders to work together to tackle issues and co-design solutions. We champion opportunities to work collaboratively with stakeholders while ensuring we execute our regulatory responsibilities appropriately.
Evaluation
Our evaluation will inform improvements to our regulatory approaches and activities. We intend to evaluate and report on our regulatory performance based on four key measures:
- Effective water resource and environmental outcomes.
- Delivery of timely water and environmental regulatory services.
- We will work with our key stakeholders to develop or improve our metrics for the above measures.
- We will provide annual updates to our stakeholders as we continue to build our regulatory capability.
We will work with our key stakeholders to develop or improve our metrics for the above measures. We will provide annual updates to our stakeholders as we continue to build our regulatory capability.
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