Page 4235 - Week 13 - Thursday, 27 November 2014
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reviewed to bring about a piece of legislation that will take us through the next few decades with more certainty that nature conservation matters are being better addressed.
The review of the Nature Conservation Act was a Labor Party election promise in 2004 as a prelude to considering strengthening the role of the Conservator of Flora and Fauna. The review did not actually commence until midway through the last Assembly. In fact, it has taken so long that there have been four iterations of the environment department in the interim, and three of these have dealt with the review of this bill. Between Environment ACT, DECCEW, ESDD and EPD, we finally find ourselves here today.
The government released a discussion paper calling for submissions in December 2010 and the community forum was held in that period for stakeholders to discuss issues with the government. It was not until October 2013 that the first exposure draft was made publicly available, which enabled the community to see whether their comments were considered or reflected in the bill. Given that the community had been waiting to see this legislation for 10 years and knew that there was considerable interest in it and there was no legal deadline for new legislation to commence, an exposure draft offered a clear and easy way for the government to seek feedback.
When this draft bill was tabled as an exposure draft, there was strong feedback from many in the community that it did not reflect their community submissions, and major concerns were raised. I believe that a lot of the stress that this bill caused over the past year or two could have been avoided by releasing the exposure draft a bit earlier. But I do really appreciate that, after discussion with Minister Corbell, he did release the PricewaterhouseCoopers review of the role and functions of the conservator to accompany the exposure draft bill, and I think that added to the depth of the discussion.
The Assembly passed a motion in February this year to establish a roundtable to discuss the draft bill, chaired by the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, to ensure that the community, along with the government and key stakeholders, were able to discuss and explore the issues in the draft bill in a forum where key government staff could explain their rationale for various clauses.
I was pleased that the government revised the draft bill between the exposure draft comments period closing and the roundtable, and many improvements were made that captured much of the community feedback from that process. I believe the roundtable was very successful in eliciting the major issues as well as identifying many simple amendments that will improve the legislation in terms of environmental outcomes, application and enforcement.
The consultation report pulled together by the commissioner’s office was a very useful summary of the roundtable, and I would like to thank the commissioner’s office for the report and the stakeholders who made input into the process and attended on the day.
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