Unit Synopsis
This unit aims to provide students with an understanding of the interpretation and application of statutes, legislative frameworks and principles that form the foundation for environmental health practice. In particular, this unit will detail various legislative tools for the management of public health issues in different settings. The prosecution process and gathering of evidence will be discussed, along with a detailed discussion on the role of the environmental health practitioner in relation to public health, environmental and planning legislation. Major topics covered include: an introduction to law and government, public health law, planning and environmental law, local laws, investigation processes and procedures.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 2 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
There are no pre-requisites for the unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2024
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Online Quiz(zes) | 15% |
| 2. Online Quiz(zes) | 40% |
| 3. Written Assessment | 45% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 1 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 14.29% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: TaSAC advice
H5P study guides will become inoperable owing to H5P update.
Redesign weekly study guides in new version of H5P, incorporating more interactive features.
Weekly study guides were updated and additional interactive features were added to some weeks.
Source: SUTE
Student response rate to Student Unit & Teaching Evaluation (SUTE) survey was low.
Include additional reminders to students throughout the later weeks of term, explaining why their feedback is important.
Occasional reminders were made. The response rate increased from 0 in 2024 to 2/14 in 2025.
Source: SUTE data
SUTE response rate still low.
Encourage students to complete the SUTE and teaching surveys, explaining why their feedback is important.
In Progress
Source: UC reflection
Questions in question bank used for Assessment task 1 could be even more random.
Add additional questions to the question bank for Assessment task 1.
In Progress
Source: UC reflection
Increase the scope of examples used for Assessment task 2.
Randomise short answer questions in Assessment task 2 through use of a question bank.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Interpret and apply the provisions of key public health legislation related to environmental health practice
- Interpret and apply the provisions of key environmental and planning legislation related to environmental health practice
- Identify and manage public health issues using legal frameworks within relevant environmental and public health legislation
- Apply legal procedures relevant to the administration of environmental and public health legislation
This unit meets the following criteria for accreditation by Environmental Health Australia:
L1 Introduction to legislative frameworks for environmental health.
L2 Introduction to the law making process and factors that influence policy and legislation.
L3 Knowledge of how to interpret legislation.
L4 Knowledge of public and environmental health legislation.
L5 Introduction to development assessment processes.
L7 Introduction to grounds for internal and external reviews, appeals, etc.
L9 Knowledge of legal authority and requirements to act in accordance with the purpose of legislation and ethical standards for authorised persons/officers (e.g. duty of care, confidentiality, powers of entry).
L10 Knowledge of compliance options (legislative and non-legislative) including their strengths, limitations and legislative requirements.
L11 Introduction to interviewing, investigation and risk-based inspection techniques, prosecution processes, court procedures, etc.
L12 Introduction to enforcement guidelines/policies/protocols.
L13 Introduction to governance principles and strategies, ethics and decision making.
L14 Overview of the jurisdiction and role of agencies relevant to environmental health in all tiers of government.
L15 Introduction to key government strategies and intergovernmental agreements in the context of environmental health.
L17 Knowledge of criteria and general procedures for assessing, approving, determining conditions and licences, notices, orders and fines.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | |
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | |
| 3 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | • |
| 8 - Ethical practice | • | • | • | • |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 3 - Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | • | |||||
| 2 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | • | |||||||
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | • | • | ||||||||