Page 1797 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The Environment Protection Act specifies what an auditor must have regard to in preparing an audit. However, these considerations are restricted to an environmental audit conducted under division 9.5. There is no similar guidance for an environmental audit conducted under division 9.2. The bill corrects this by amending section 74 to include the matters an environmental audit must consider for the purposes of division 9.2.
The bill also makes three minor editorial amendments to the Environment Protection Act. It is currently an offence under the Environment Protection Regulation 2005 for a person in charge of a development site not to install or maintain a sediment and erosion control measure as approved by a building certifier. This bill amends the Environment Protection Regulation to add that it is also an offence not to install or maintain sediment and erosion control measures when required by a development application condition.
This amendment will ensure that the Environment Protection Authority can take quick enforcement action irrespective of whether the sediment and erosion control requirements originated under the building certifier approval or under the Planning and Development Act 2007.
The bill also amends the Nature Conservation Act 2014. The Parks and Conservation Service uses grazing by livestock in nature reserves as one way to manage fuel loads and biomass for its biodiversity program. This management is undertaken by issuing the owner of the livestock with a section 303 licence under the Planning and Development Act. Section 303 licences are also issued to allow owners of livestock to graze their livestock on public unleased land.
The multipurpose use of the section 303 licence has the benefit of one application process and fee for owners of livestock. The bill amends the Nature Conservation Act to ensure the holder of a section 303 licence has all relevant exemptions under the Nature Conservation Act when acting in accordance with their licence. There are also consequential amendments to section 261 of the Nature Conservation Act to ensure that the exemption provisions are consistent. The bill also makes two minor technical amendments to the Nature Conservation Act.
The bill makes several amendments to the Planning and Development Act 2007 as well. The first two amendments are in relation to the draft plan variations. Under the Planning and Development Act, draft plan variations can take interim effect prior to formal commencement. The legislation provides a defined period for the interim effect, with the default end date for the period of interim effect being one year after notification of the draft plan variation.
Recent amendments to the Planning and Development Act now require draft plan variations to be referred to a committee of the Legislative Assembly. If the committee decides to prepare a report on the draft plan variation, that process may take longer than the current default end date for the period of interim effect. This bill amends the Planning and Development Act to extend the default end date for the period of interim effect to 18 months after the notification of the draft plan variation. The amendments
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video