Legislative Council Tuesday 21 May, 2019

Ms FORREST question to LEADER of the GOVERNMENT in the LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL, Mrs HISCUTT

With regard to access to and management of the Arthur-Pieman Conservation Area - APCA - and current assessments required to enable access that are the responsibility of the state - 

(1) What reports currently required by the Commonwealth or any court proceedings regarding environmental assessment and management of the APCA are the responsibility of the state to undertake and provide to either Commonwealth or federal courts?

(2) Have the tenders to conduct these assessments been granted to undertake the required work? If so, when is it expected the work will be completed? 

If not, what is the time frame for this process?

ANSWER

Mr President, I thank the member for Murchison for her question. 

(1) The reports required by the Commonwealth to enable an assessment to be undertaken under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 of the proposal to open tracks in the APCA to off-road vehicle use are described in guidelines issued by the Commonwealth Department of the Environment and Energy to the Director of National Parks. 

It is the state's responsibility to prepare those reports and to synthesise them in a public environmental report, which will form the basis of the Commonwealth's assessment. Those guidelines have been published and are publicly available on the Department of the Environment and Energy website. There are no requirements arising from any court proceedings for any further reporting.

(2) The Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment sought to engage a principal consultancy joint open tender process to prepare the public environment report. The department has been in ongoing discussions with the Commonwealth Department of the Environment and Energy to gain clarification on a number of technical matters relating the requirements of the assessment. 

Until such time as those matters are resolved, a tender cannot be awarded to allow the work required to prepare the public environmental report to commence. A specific time frame for the appointment of a consultancy through the tender process is unknown at this stage.