AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

Auditor-General (Amendment) Act 1997
No. 90 of 1997
	
An Act to amend the Auditor-General Act 1996
[Notified in ACT Gazette S380: 1 December 1997]
	The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory enacts as follows:
Short title
1.  This Act may be cited as the Auditor-General (Amendment) Act 1997.
Commencement
2. This Act commences on the day on which it is notified in the Gazette.
Principal Act
3.  In this Act, “Principal Act” means the Auditor-General Act 1996.1
Performance audits
4.  Section 12 of the Principal Act is amended by adding at the end the following subsections:
“(2)  In the conduct of a performance audit, the Auditor-General shall, where appropriate, take into account environmental issues relative to the operations being reviewed or examined, having regard to the principles of ecologically sustainable development.
“(3) In this section, ‘ecologically sustainable development’ means the effective integration of economic and environmental considerations in decision-making processes achievable through implementation of the following principles:
	(a)	the precautionary principle, namely, that if there is a threat of serious or irreversible environmental damage, a lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation;
	(b)	the inter-generational equity principle, namely, that the present generation should ensure that the health, diversity and productivity of the environment is maintained or enhanced for the benefit of future generations;
	(c)	conservation of biological diversity and ecological integrity;
	(d)	improved valuation and pricing of environmental resources.”.
	
NOTE
Principal Act
1.	Act No. 23, 1996.
[Presentation speech made in Assembly on 9 April 1997]

©  Australian Capital Territory 1997