Page 4017 - Week 13 - Thursday, 10 November 1994
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NATURE CONSERVATION (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1994
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Heritage and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (10.50): Madam Speaker, I present the Nature Conservation (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1994.
Title read by Clerk.
MR WOOD: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
Madam Speaker, the Nature Conservation (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1994 amends the Nature Conservation Act 1980. This Act is the primary legislation for conservation of the flora and fauna of the ACT and the management of lands reserved for environmental conservation. The Bill proposes amendments to existing legislation. They are separate from, although consistent with, the provisions contained in the Nature Conservation (Amendment) Bill 1994 recently passed by the Assembly, which introduced new provisions to implement a Government initiative for the identification and management of threatened species and ecological communities.
In recognition of the importance of having sound and effective statutory authority to underpin its nature conservation responsibilities and commitments, the Government undertook a comprehensive review of the provisions of the Nature Conservation Act with a view to streamlining and updating nature conservation processes and procedures. The review had the following aims: To amend those provisions which, in the light of experience, could be more effective in achieving nature conservation objectives; to accommodate recent developments in the administration of nature conservation; to amend outdated or unnecessary administrative requirements; and, finally, to correct anomalies and clarify meaning and scope.
The Bill provides for enhanced control of activities that are not adequately managed at present and affect the conservation requirements of native plants and animals. Other controls or administrative processes that do not serve a clear nature conservation purpose are relaxed or removed in the interests of increased administrative efficiencies and, in some cases, a decreased imposition on the community. It is proposed to strengthen controls over activities that affect the conservation requirements of native plants. Key proposals are to provide for controls to apply to indirect actions under the control of a person, and also to limit exemptions that currently apply to seed collection and the taking of timber and protected plants, so that conservation needs can be more effectively managed.
It is proposed to strengthen controls over activities that affect the conservation requirements of native animals. Key proposals include a requirement for applicants for the public display of live animals to prepare species and collection management plans; prohibition of the use of drum nets for fishing, on the grounds that they are non-specific in the animals that they trap and kill; and, finally, amendment of criteria that determine offences associated with the release of an animal from captivity, to recognise broad nature conservation considerations.
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