Codes of Practice

Industry codes of practice regulate and manage the physical operations and activities of the relevant industry. These Codes are commonly developed and regulated by the industry itself (such as the Forest Practices Code) and usually include general principles and objectives for planning and management, as well as specific management actions.

In some cases, the Code will be a legal requirement for the industry (the Forest Practices Code via the Forest Practices Act 1985) and in others it will be merely a best practice document (the Quarry Code of Practice or Code of Practice for Mineral Exploration), where compliance with the whole document or certain sections of it may be required by a licence, permit or Environment Protection Notice. Often, even where a Code is legally binding, not all of its provisions require absolute compliance. For example, the Forest Practices Code contains ‘will’, ‘should’ and ‘may’ statements whereupon only the ‘will’ statements must be observed, raising the possibility of varying degrees of compliance.