Page 42 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 9 February 2016
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the territory’s nature reserves—we have heard detail on that from both the opposition and Mr Rattenbury—while another reduces red tape in the building approval process. The bill also makes a number of other more minor and consequential amendments that I will leave for my colleagues to discuss later on.
At this point I would like to talk about the amendment contained in the bill that relates to closing nature reserves to protect public safety under the Nature Conservation Act. The amendment in clause 15 of the bill relates to the power of the Conservator of Flora and Fauna to close nature reserves by issuing a closed reserve declaration under section 259 of the Nature Conservation Act. A closed reserve declaration may be made if the conservator believes the continued unrestricted public access may endanger public safety or interfere with the effective management of the reserve. A closed reserve declaration is a notifiable instrument, and an additional public notice of the closure must also be given, including displaying notices in a prominent place at the reserve itself.
The provision as it is currently drafted presents a number of issues in being able to act quickly to close nature reserves to protect public safety. Having to wait until the day after the instrument is formally notified on the legislation register for the closure to legally commence means that it is not possible to immediately close a reserve to protect public safety. The process for notification of an instrument often involves a lag time of a couple of days and this affects the ability of rangers and conservation officers to respond to urgent situations.
The bill proposes an amendment to facilitate the closure of a nature reserve on an urgent basis. The amendment inserts a new section 259(5), which will permit a closed reserve declaration to commence on a day or at a time earlier than its notification day. This will allow a declaration to commence at the time it is made and for public notice to be given subsequently, including signs erected on the reserve.
As mentioned earlier, this amendment deals with the practical difficulty of needing to urgently close a nature reserve without having to wait until after notification of the instrument. This amendment will allow the conservator to close reserves urgently to protect the public from harm. For example, a reserve may need to be closed urgently to respond to conditions of extreme fire danger, high rainfall that causes flooding and makes some swimming areas unsafe, or gale force winds that could lead to a high risk of falling limbs.
It also includes consequential amendments that expand the available defence. Under section 260 of the Nature Conservation Act it is an offence to enter a closed reserve. As the proposed amendment will allow for a closed reserve declaration to be legally effective from the time it is signed, this may cause some people to inadvertently commit an offence by entering a closed reserve. People may enter or be on a reserve before the conservation officers are able to reach the reserve to erect signage notifying the public of the closure. Therefore clause 16 of the bill substitutes new section 260(3) to include a new defence that will mean a person will not have committed an offence if they have no reasonable grounds for suspecting that a closed reserve declaration was in force. While the offence of entering a closed reserve is a strict liability offence, the expansion of the available defence mitigates the concern of catching the general public in an inadvertent breach of the law.
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