Legislative Council, Wednesday 7 August 2024

Ms FORREST question to MINSITER for PARKS and ENVIRONMENT, Mr DUIGAN

Mr President, my question is also to the minister for Parks and Environment, again on the same matter. I did not know the member for Hobart was asking questions on this area either, so we may cross over a little bit.

Minister, publicly available information related to the draft validation State Coastal Policy Act 2024, which you have already made comments about that you do not need to repeat, indicates that the recent approval of the Robbins Island wind farm, more specifically the wharf required for the construction of the wind farm by the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (TASCAT) has raised questions about the manner in which the State Coastal Policy previously has been applied in relation to Outcome 1.4.2 of the state coastal policy. My question is, what specific questions did it raise?

The information you provided said that questions were raised. What were those questions?

ANSWER

Mr President, I thank the member for the question. As I have said, I think in this place and the other place, the government received legal advice. That legal advice remains privileged. The government will not be releasing the legal advice that it has received-

Ms Forrest - I did not ask for legal advice.

Mr DUIGAN - As I say, since receiving that advice, it has become clear that the government needs to clarify the current situation, which, as I say, has raised a number of anomalies and deems potentially unlawful any actions in some of those coastal areas.

Ms O'Connor - That is not the question.

Mr DUIGAN - So we are seeking to provide some clarity and confirmation around those issues.

Supplementary Question:

Ms FORREST - Mr President, the question was what questions were raised. This is information that has been provided by the government on the short period of consultation on the validation bill. I will call it that for short. The government’s own information says it raised questions about the manner in which the State Coastal Policy has previously been applied. I am not asking for the legal advice. I want to know what questions were raised in relation to this. What were the questions that were raised that you may have had to seek legal advice about. I do not want the advice; I want to know what the question was or questions were.

Mr DUIGAN - Mr President, I thank the member for the question. I do not have in front of me the questions that were raised. I would point again to the point in time where the government received advice on coastal policy and the change in its application, which has led us to the circumstance. We need to provide clarity to the decisions that have been previously made. So I am-

Mr DUIGAN - I am happy to further examine that question around questions, but I do not have with me a list of questions.

Ms Forrest - My question, through you Mr President, is will the minister provide that question?

Mr PRESIDENT - This is another question; you can ask another question. It is getting a bit out of order here.

Mr DUIGAN - I do not know if there is a list of questions. I do not think that exists. We received advice which has -

Members interjecting.

Mr PRESIDENT - Yes, Standing Order 49: a member may ask an oral question without notice, and the minister, leader, or member concerned if it is one that in his or her opinion may be answered immediately, may there upon answer the question, and if not, request that it be placed on notice. You can always request that it be put on notice because I cannot force the -

Ms Webb - Is that what the minister did, through you, Mr President? Did the minister request to take that on notice?

Ms O'Connor - He said he would provide more information, I think.

Mr Duigan - Well, I can provide some more information.

Mr PRESIDENT - It is up to the minister to provide an answer. The minister will take the request on and provide the answer or not provide the answer. I cannot direct the minister to -

Ms Forrest - I will put it on notice.

Mr DUIGAN - No, I will provide information right now if that is okay.

Mr President, the advice provided to government in relation to the application of the coastal policy on a non-related development brought into question the decision of the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, TASCAT, in relation to the Robbins Island development, which led to an appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision. This advice reinforced that the coastal policy should be directly considered in all development applications regardless of the requirements of the local planning scheme. Therein lies the answer to your question.