Page 4240 - Week 13 - Thursday, 27 November 2014
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is much clearer and provides more teeth for relevant agencies to use in nature conservation.
The Greens believe that to get good environmental outcomes we need both high quality legislation and adequate resourcing. I understand that this bill will not commence until autumn next year, to give some time for the transitionary paperwork to be completed. The changes are considerable, so I imagine there is plenty of work in revising the listings, the plans, the licences and so on in time for this commencement. It will also be useful to see how well resourced the relevant agencies are in terms of meeting the new legislative requirements for nature conservation.
In conclusion, I am pleased that on the last sitting day of 2014 we can welcome a new nature conservation act into existence. The Greens and the conservation community in the ACT have been waiting for this moment and it is a pleasure to be part of passing the bill today.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (5.12), in reply: I thank members for their support of this bill today. The bill will strengthen the ACT’s existing nature conservation management framework. The bill addresses a range of issues that have arisen from a review of the Nature Conservation Act and subsequent policy development. It has also been informed by an exposure draft consultation process which ran from 31 October last year, with submissions accepted until 8 January this year, and a subsequent roundtable, as members have outlined, on 24 April this year.
The Nature Conservation Act has been the primary ACT law for the protection and handling of native plants and animals, the identification and protection of threatened species and ecological communities, the management of national parks and nature reserves and the conservation of the ACT’s natural resources. This bill replaces the 1980 act, and it is the first significant update to nature conservation processes and procedures since self-government. It will make processes more accountable and transparent. The new act aims to rationalise regulatory approaches while maintaining appropriate and efficient environmental standards.
Major components of the 1980 act have been retained. The previous act has served us well and all but a few provisions have been retained. Those provisions that were not kept related to provisions which are dealt with in other laws. For example, the littering provisions were not needed because of the Litter Act. Provisions relating to plant and animal diseases are covered in the Plant Diseases Act and the Animal Diseases Act respectively. The act has been restructured significantly and much of the language has been modernised. Provisions have also been aligned with other more recent statutes and a range of provisions, particularly relating to licensing, have been brought into the act rather than left in regulation or in disallowable instruments.
Consequential changes to the Planning and Development Act are also covered in this bill. These primarily relate to minor changes in processes for management plans as a consequence of bringing management planning for conservation reserves under the
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