LGAT Submission - Statutory Environmental Impact Assessment Process
On behalf of Tasmanian councils, we’ve provided feedback on the proposed Statutory Environmental Impact Assessment Process under the National Parks and Reserves Management Act 2002.
Valuable insight from our members was gained via written feedback and from those who attended a workshop we facilitated with representatives from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment.
This engagement effort identified the following:
- Improving and formalising the current non-statutory Reserve Activity Assessments process is overwhelmingly supported.
- The proposed Independent Assessment Panels are supported for Level 3 and above projects with a clear and transparent process. However, Level 1 and 2 projects should have a simplified, fair and equitable system developed.
- There is concern about the resourcing capacity of the Tasmanian Planning Commission, so we’ve suggested proponents take a more active involvement and be responsible for tasks such as statutory referrals and public consultation.
- We’d like to see specific timeframes for the new statutory process, along with details of the fee proposal and cost recovery model.
We also agree with a number of councils who identified that there is a lack of eligibility and assessment criteria. We’ve suggested that previously completed applications could be examined to help classify known land use proposals, their operational nature and impacts to determine how activities should be classified for assessment (e.g. tourism, vegetation clearing).
LGAT thanks the Department of Natural Resources and Environment for the opportunity to provide feedback on this proposal and commend them for an extensive consultation process and collaboration with the sector.