Page 1796 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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Title read by Clerk.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister assisting the Chief Minister on Advanced Technology and Space Industries) (10.59): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
I am pleased to present the Planning and Environment Legislation Amendment Bill 2019. The bill is part of the government’s regular program of omnibus amendment bills that make minor policy and technical amendments to the statute book. Omnibus bills are an effective means of keeping the ACT’s legislation up to date and give the government the ability to respond quickly to changing circumstances.
This bill contains minor policy and technical amendments to the following six pieces of legislation administered by the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate: the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment Act 1993, the Environment Protection Act 1997, the Environment Protection Regulation 2005, the Nature Conservation Act 2014, the Planning and Development Act 2007 and the Stock Act 2005.
I now outline the provisions of the bill. The bill makes a technical amendment to section 21 of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment Act 1993. Under section 21 of that Act, the minister responsible for the act is also responsible for tabling the government response to special reports made by the commissioner.
However, there are circumstances where the content of the special report falls under the responsibility of a different minister. This can create confusion in the Assembly where the Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, the minister currently responsible for the act, tables the government response as required but then defers all details to the minister responsible for the content.
The bill amends section 21 to place the requirement for tabling the government response with the minister responsible for the content of the special report and removes the Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability from the process in situations where he or she is not the responsible minister. This is a sensible and practicable amendment which vests the responsibility for tabling the government response to commissioner’s reports in the hands of the minister responsible for its content.
The bill also makes two minor policy amendments to the Environment Protection Act 1997 in relation to environmental audits of site assessments of contaminated land. In practice, the main purpose of an environmental audit is to determine the suitability of land for a proposed or current use. The bill amends the definition of the environmental audit to include this as a purpose.
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