Page 41 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2016
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The opposition supports this legislation, which makes sensible changes in the planning, building and environment spaces. I will have further remarks to make in the event that the minister moves his amendment.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (12.16): This bill, as Mr Coe has touched on, proposes a raft of minor policy and editorial amendments to a range of legislation including: minor policy amendments to the Building (General) Regulation 2008, which clarify the handling of asbestos cement sheeting; minor policy amendments to the Planning and Development Act 2007, which ensures that an EIS exemption is considered with a DA; a technical amendment to the Nature Conservation Act 2014, which allows for the closure of a reserve for safety reasons to come into effect at the time the declaration is made and allows the minister to make an additional key threatening process list; technical amendments to the Planning and Development Act 2007 in relation to complying with the conservator’s advice in relation to a protected matter; and editorial amendments to the Nature Conservation Act, Planning and Development Regulation 2008 and Environment Protection Act 1997, and there are various amendments under those regulations which I do not need to go into in great detail.
The bill also includes an amendment moved by the Minister for Planning and Land Management in relation to the Electricity Feed-in (Renewable Energy Premium) Act 2008, and this seeks to address an error that was made in the original legislation around the definitions of “energy generators”, which had the unfortunate effect of meaning that medium-scale generators did not need to be paid. Medium-scale generators have been paid over the past five years, and so this retrospective amendment merely reinforces what everyone assumed to be the law during that time by ensuring that all payments that were made are now, in fact, legal payments. Madam Speaker, the Greens will be supporting this bill before us today.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella—Minister for Planning and Land Management, Minister for Racing and Gaming and Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations) (12.17), in reply: I thank members for their contributions to this bill. The bill is a continuation of the government’s longstanding planning, building and environment legislation amendment bill process. This is the ninth omnibus bill to be created and manages all minor policy, technical or editorial amendments for legislation administered by the Environment and Planning Directorate. The omnibus PABLAB process is an efficient way to make a number of necessary minor amendments in a single bill. A consolidated amendment bill also helps the wider community to have easy access to and understand changes to planning, building and environment legislation.
This bill makes minor policy, technical and editorial amendments to the Building (General) Regulation 2008, the Environment Protection Act 1997, the Environment Protection Regulation 2005, the Nature Conservation Act 2014, the Planning and Development Act 2007 and the Planning and Development Regulation 2008.
Whilst containing only minor amendments, the bill has a number of principal amendments. One such amendment is to ensure greater protection of public safety in
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