Background
Following a Council of Australian Governments (COAG) decision, the Standing Committee on the Environment and Water (SCEW) was abolished in 2013. In 2014 the NEPC Service Corporation was also abolished. Further to this decision it was agreed that future operational and corporate support for NEPC would be provided in the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment (the Department) by the NEPC Business Services Team.
Functions include:
- Administer NEPC legislation
- Manage NEPC Act legal advice
- Manage NEPM legislative instrument process
- Oversee NEPM reporting
- Manage the Special Account including jurisdictional revenue contributions and expenditure
- Financial reporting (including estimates, SAP accounting, Executive Officer)
- Coordinate the NEPC meeting papers process with MEM secretariat including the decision register
- Ensure independence of NEPC Executive Officer
- Manage legacy SCEW work programme management
- Jurisdictional and line area relationship/expectations management
- Procurement and grant management, including processing, approvals, and stakeholder liaison
- Govdex (MinCo papers) site management
- NEPC website management
- NEPC in box (jurisdictional contact forum) management
- Membership and contact detail management.
The Business Services Team is headed by the NEPC Executive Officer, a statutory position established under the Act.