Mr BAYLEY – Minister, I want to go back to the REAP and forgive me if I wasn’t listening closely enough, but budget paper number 2 volume 1 at page 255 says that decrease in the energy and renewables output from 25-26 reflects the funding profile of the prior budget initiatives including the green hydrogen hub, Renewable Energy Approvals Pathway.
Can you confirm, is the REAP still alive and well? How many positions does it have at the moment? In 2024 you announced that there were nine full-time equivalent positions there. Are they all still employed and filled?
Mr DUIGAN – Certainly, REAP is alive and well with positions in ReCFIT with those case managers and part of the broader team with positions in NRE, Environment Tas, positions in the EPA to the absolute specifics of – Vanessa’s probably best placed to give you that level of detail.
Ms PINTO – Yes, there is a case-management program that is offered through ReCFIT. What we have done is to engage individuals who are experienced in particular areas, whether that may be planning or in the environmental space and what they seek to do is look after regions so they will service developments that are occurring, for example, in the north‑west through the Central Highlands, up down in the south and then in the north, then what they seek to do is provide a very important facilitative role between the developer and regulators.
Some of the areas that they may assist with are in the space of assisting with how to approach applications that need to be submitted.
Mr BAYLEY – Forgive me, if I can interrupt. I’m aware of the program and what it’s seeking to achieve. My question was to the Budget and Output Group 7 and the fact that funding for that output was reduced, and the budget papers seem to indicate that it would impact on the renewable energy approvals pathway, but you’re confirming that that’s not correct. There are still nine9 positions in that program?
Ms PINTO – There are positions within ReCFIT itself and there are positions that are across other agencies, such as Natural Resources and Environment Tasmania in the environment team there to assist with the assessment of threatened species and other affected parts of flora and fauna for example, yes, so those and also within the regulator in the EAP.
Mr BAYLEY – In terms of the efficiency program that the government’s engaged with, how does a program such as the REAP get treated when it comes to the EPU, the Efficiency and Productivity Unit, does it focus exclusively on that pathway and that program, or does it just look at ReCFIT separately and then the EPA separately and someone else separately and it may not look at this as a kind of a whole program of government?
Mr DUIGAN – I will ask the secretary to make comment on that.
Mr LIMKIN – My understanding is that the EPU will look at the outcomes, so it won’t be department-specific. In relation to REAP, it is a program of work that has been done across multiple agencies to deliver an outcome for our community. We looked at the REAP. We will work in partnership with DPAC and our colleagues in NRE, Planning and Aboriginal Heritage as part of that process, but it’s not going to be agency by agency.
Mr BAYLEY – What sort of transparency will there be about that program? The EPU looks at this as a program, makes a number of different findings, I guess, and recommendations. What level of transparency is there to us as parliamentarians and, more importantly, the public, about the recommendations the EPU makes and how the government therefore responds to those recommendations?
Mr LIMKIN – The EPU is led by DPAC and, at this stage, DPAC is currently working through how the EPU will function, working collaboratively with agencies. The secretaries have already had two conversations on the EPU, so I can’t really give you information specifically, Mr Bayley, because that is a journey that the State Service is still going on.
Mr BAYLEY – Has it been communicated to you as secretaries that the responsible minister wants transparency around those issues?
CHAIR – You are asking more questions than you were allotted. You can ask it on the next rotation.
