Page 2096 - Week 06 - Thursday, 8 June 2017

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Part 5, which relates to the Energy Efficiency (Cost of Living) Improvement Act 2012, amends the power of the administrator under the Energy Efficiency (Cost of Living) Improvement Act to allow for easier sharing of compliance information with similar environmental and greenhouse gas emissions agencies in other jurisdictions.

Part 6, which relates to the Environment Protection Act, increases the prerequisites and conditions needed in a notice requiring an environmental audit on contaminated land to be in line with other audits the authority may demand. It also creates an offence for failing to comply with a notice to audit contaminated land, similar to failure to conduct another audit.

Part 7 relates to the Heritage Act 2004. This clause amends the provision to state that the council must provide its reasons for a decision but removes the requirement that the council provides an assessment against the criteria if there has not been one. I will speak more about the changes to the Heritage Act later.

Part 8, which relates to the Nature Conservation Act 2014, changes the reporting period from five to seven years, the justification being to bring it in line with minimum federal reporting.

Part 9 relates to the Planning and Development Act 2007. The change adds the EPA as a person who must be consulted by the custodian in the preparation of a draft management plan for an area of public land.

Part 10 relates to the Public Place Names Act 1989. The current act outlines that all cultural groups named in the regulations are to be consulted on public place names. The current regulations name ATSIC as the only cultural group. However, this is no longer in existence, so the bill has been changed to direct the minister to take reasonable steps to consult an appropriate cultural group. I will speak a little more about the Public Place Names Act a bit later.

Part 11 relates to the Water Resources Act. The act is being amended to more accurately reflect, by geography, the current councils within the water catchment region areas, as a consequence of the changed names of several New South Wales councils. It also acknowledges and specifies a pre-election period for tabling reports which have been presented to the minister during an election campaign. It also changes the ACT government membership to better reflect the directorates involved and redefines membership of the coordination group from being several heads of directorates to the heads of service plus an appropriate director-general.

Part 12, which relates to the Water Resources Regulation 2007, prescribes the councils which must be negotiated with, accommodating current and possible future council amalgamations and name changes, and appoints the same heads of directorates which were named in the act to the coordination group.

As a whole, the Canberra Liberals support this bill. There are, however, two sections that we do not agree with: changes to the Heritage Act, and the changes to the Public Place Names Act. I will speak on those concerns in a moment.


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