The Australian Democrats will remove a legislative loophole that may prevent environmental vandals from being held fully accountable for their actions.

"South Australia is in the ridiculous situation where its specialist environment court has the authority to identify serious damage, but not the authority to impose serious penalties," Australian Democrats leader, Mike Elliott, said today.

"The state government must move to give the Environment, Resources and Development Court full powers under the Environment Protection Act.

"If not, the Australian Democrats will introduce legislation in the next parliamentary sitting to rectify the problem.

"The recent ruling by Justice Trenorden in the Southcorp Wines case highlighted that South Australia’s ERD Court can only impose fines of up to $120,000, while the Magistrates Court can impose a fine up to $150,000 and refer the defendant to the District Court.

"This is significant because the District Court can then impose the maximum penalty under the Environment Protection Act of up to $1 million.

"Effectively the discretion of the EPA as to which court they prosecute a case in is the difference between a maximum penalty of $120,000 and a maximum penalty of $1 million.

"The ERD Court should be South Australia’s major environmental court with full powers under the Act to bring down consistent and specialist rulings.

"That the Environment, Resources and Development Court has less discretionary powers than both the Magistrates and District Courts on penalties for breach of environmental laws seriously devalues South Australia’s specialist environmental court."