Page 949 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 May 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The amendment to the Fisheries Act is a technical amendment to achieve internal consistency with the types of declarations made under the act. All the declarations that are possible to make under the act are disallowable instruments, except for the declaration of the possession of limits of fish species, which is a notifiable instrument. The amendment will change this declaration from an NI to a disallowable instrument, as with the other declarations under the act.
The two technical amendments to the Gas Safety Act streamline the act, in line with the change in the Gas Safety Amendment Act 2014, which moved the regulatory responsibility from the Planning and Land Authority to the Construction Occupations Registrar. These amendments remove the last reference to the Planning and Land Authority from the act.
The first two amendments to the Nature Conservation Act are minor policy changes to sections 140 and 141 of the act. These two sections make it an offence to remove plant material from a reserve and offer it for sale. The amendments clarify that it is an offence to do so, regardless of whether the plant material is alive or dead. This is an important amendment which emphasises the important ecological role dead plant material plays in our reserves.
The next amendment is a technical amendment which removes section 178. Section 178 gives the minister the power to order the Planning and Land Authority to prepare either a planning report or a strategic environmental assessment before a draft management plan for a reserve is approved.
The issue, in this case, is that these are both technical documents which bear no relevance to reserve management plans. For example, planning reports are used primarily in relation to the granting of leases of preparation for Territory Plan variations, whereas strategic environmental assessments are a precursor document to the establishment of a reserve and are not relevant to management plans. Section 178 has never been used and it is entirely appropriate that redundant provisions are removed from the statute book in a regular legislative program, such as this omnibus bill.
The third amendment is a technical amendment to section 217, an offence provision which prohibits the use of nets in reserves for the purpose of catching animals. The amendment clarifies that it is not an offence to use a landing net while fishing. This is a commonsense amendment which makes the act consistent with the Fisheries Act 2000.
The final amendment to this act is a minor policy change to section 325, a provision which allows conservation officers to direct people to leave a reserve. Under the current provision, officers are required to tell people who are directed to leave that they are able to return to the reserve within 24 hours. This bushfire season has made it clear that national parks and nature reserves can be hazardous places during periods of extreme fire danger. A requirement to tell people that they can return to a reserve within 24 hours of being directed to leave is not only impractical but could potentially be quite hazardous. This amendment removes this requirement, which will allow
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video