Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for PARKS and ENVIRONMENT Mr DUIGAN
I asked you yesterday – you failed to answer the question – about whether it was Crown Law that provided the advice on which you are relying as minister to change the State Coastal Policy, which has held us in good stead since 1996.
Will you confirm that that interpretation of the State Coastal Policy that you referred to yesterday was made by Crown Law?
ANSWER
Mr President, in terms of providing legal advice to you, I understand that lives in the realm of being privileged and I will not be providing that advice –
Ms O’Connor – No, it does not always. It is a choice of government.
Mr DUIGAN – I would say is that the state’s coastal policy has been applied in one way for 28 years. There were a great number of things approved under the State Coastal Policy in that 28 years. Come March 2024, we received a new interpretation and a new application of the state’s coastal policy.
Ms O’Connor – Where from?
Mr DUIGAN – It then became incumbent on government – and I received advice and I formed the view that we needed to clarify the situation. There are a great many things that were approved under coastal policy in that 28 years that we need to provide some certainty to and we need to provide a degree of certainty as we move forward and look for sustainable and reasonable developments in our coastal areas. I will continue to –
Ms O’CONNOR – Point of order, Mr President. Standing order 100, relevance, I did not ask for a copy of the legal advice. I asked the minister whether Crown Law provided that advice.
Mr PRESIDENT – Yes, just to clarify. You cannot ask for legal opinion on a question.
Ms O’Connor – I did not.
Mr PRESIDENT – You did not, so I ask the minister to answer the question.
Mr DUIGAN – Thank you, Mr President. Yes. I received advice and I have formed the opinion that the State Coastal Policy requires clarification. I will draft legislation and we will take it out for consultation. We will bring it back to the parliament to clarify the issues that are raised in the coastal policy.
Ms O’CONNOR – Point of order, Mr President, I do not think the minister has respected your request that he direct himself to the question. Twice now he has refused to answer whether or not that advice was provided by Crown Law. It is a straight question. I could just keep asking you.
Mr PRESIDENT – It is within the minister’s rights not to divulge where he gets legal opinion from. I cannot force the minister to do that. He can answer the question as he sees clear. If you are not happy with the answer I cannot make the minister hand legal advice over in any way, shape or form.
Ms O’CONNOR – Thank you, Mr President. I refer the minister to the Ministerial Code of Conduct. Honesty, integrity.
Ms O’CONNOR question to MINISTER for PARKS and ENVIRONMENT, Mr DUIGAN –
As you are refusing to answer a straightforward question to say whether you got advice from Crown Law, which is where you should be getting advice, is not breaching any privilege or confidence or anything like that.
Mr Duigan – Are we having a question here?
Ms O’CONNOR – I am getting to it. I am on my feet. My question is on behalf of Tasmanians who love their coastline. Why will you not, at the very least, prepare for people a condensed version of that advice? At the moment, all we have is your assurance that everything is going to be fine.
ANSWER
Mr President, we will prepare legislation. We will consult with all those people who wish to have an input into how coastal policy should be framed and whether the changes or the clarifications that we seek to make meet their expectations. We will bring that legislation back to the parliament. The parliament will vote on that. That is a perfectly reasonable response to what has become apparent in the last few months to the way coastal policy has been applied in Tasmania.
Ms O’Connor – Once the Robbins Island proponents came in your office door.
