Page 4071 - Week 13 - Thursday, 31 October 2013
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I seek leave to make a statement in relation to the papers.
Leave granted.
MR CORBELL: I am pleased to table today an exposure draft of the Nature Conservation Bill 2013 and to release it for public consultation. This is a bill which will strengthen the ACT’s existing nature conservation framework. The bill addresses a range of issues that have arisen out of a review of the Nature Conservation Act 1980 and subsequent policy development.
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, management of national parks and nature reserves and the conservation of the ACT’s natural resources.
The protection and management of biodiversity is fundamental to the achievement of a sustainable city. This bill builds on the strong framework that the Nature Conservation Act created by improving alignment of ACT law with those of other jurisdictions. The bill provides for additional accountability and transparency, and facilitates flexible approaches for the management of species and ecosystems. The nature conservation strategy will support the implementation of the bill by providing a vision for nature conservation in the ACT over the next decade.
Proposed amendments have been informed by public consultation through the discussion paper on the review of the Nature Conservation Act 1980 that was undertaken in 2010-11, public consultation on the draft nature conservation strategy in late 2012 and recommendations made by the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment.
The bill replaces the Nature Conservation Act 1980 and aims to update nature conservation processes and procedures to allow more efficient, flexible and effective application of nature conservation policy and to make processes more accountable and transparent. The bill aims to rationalise regulatory approaches while maintaining appropriate and efficient environmental standards. Consequential changes to the Planning and Development Act and the Tree Protection Act are also covered in this bill.
I wish to highlight some of the key elements of this exposure draft today. Turning to administration, the Nature Conservation Act would be administered by the Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development and the Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate and, by delegation, the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate.
The bill clarifies, and in some areas expands, the role of the Conservator of Flora and Fauna. The role has been expanded to provide a statutory basis for monitoring and reporting of the state of nature conservation and the effectiveness of management programs. It also proposes to reduce the role of the conservator in urban tree protection matters. This was agreed in principle in the government’s response to the
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