Ms BURNET (Clark) – I rise to speak on behalf of the Greens in relation to this rather straightforward amendment to LUPAA, the Land Use Planning and Approvals Amendment (Sensitive Disclosures) Bill 2025. I thank the minister for bringing this to the House. I also thank the state planning office for the briefing and any such briefings on planning. I love them. Thank you very much.
We have heard that this is specific to the North East Wind project, so it is a very specific amendment relating to something that was approved as a major project before the sensitive disclosures were part and parcel of that major project thinking. The minister says that this bill ensures that the major projects assessment process for the North East Wind project will provide adequate information for proper assessment while protecting culturally sensitive information from public disclosure.
The bill is fixing a technicality for this project with any future sensitive information that must be assessed as part of the major project, and not projects already submitted during the process thus far. We are up to that point where the next tranche of information is required for assessment and the sensitive disclosure of Aboriginal heritage sites is needing to be considered. It is probably not all that surprising that it comes to us now when we are at this part of the assessment process.
I thank my colleague, Mr Bayley, for reminding me that the Aboriginal Heritage Act has still not been updated. It is four years since the government suggested that they would be updating the Aboriginal Heritage Act. There is certainly work to be done by this government to ensure that Aboriginal artefacts and Aboriginal heritage are properly protected, rather than maybe protected.
As I said, the bill is fixing a technicality for this project with any future sensitive information that must be assessed as part of this major project, and not projects already submitted. The bill, as the minister has indicated in his second reading speech, is to capture sensitive Aboriginal heritage and not to disclose the location of any objects unless the relevant Aboriginal community and Aboriginal Heritage Tasmania are consulted. The North East Wind project was declared a major project in 2022 before the sensitive disclosure was introduced in 2023. It is correcting a discrepancy; it is a matter of timing, if you like.
Good planning is very important – strategic planning and statutory planning for specific projects. We have before the House today something that specifically relates to a particular major project. Good legislation will not look at every possibility or every nuance, but it will try to take in everything it needs to from the outset, rather than having to amend through legislation or regulation along the way.
Sometimes, these things cannot be helped, as we see with this current example, but it is important that there is robust consideration when making legislation. Good lawmaking is also very important for the Tasmanian public to have faith in the rigour of what is passed by this parliament. This particular LUPAA amendment regarding sensitive disclosures is particularly important to the Aboriginal community and to that greater heritage as time goes by.
Not only is good lawmaking very important, but also good process. It is a hallmark of a government to start a process and continue through to the end of that process where it should. The government relies on how robust the law is and public servants’ frank and fearless advice to government in order to undertake an assessment of, say, a major project. The public needs to have absolute confidence in the government starting a process that they can have input into ‑ a process that is listened to and incorporated into the end product in order to legitimise the outcome in the eyes of the public. It is very important that occurs when any project is considered, particularly in a planning context, after the government carries through with the chosen process.
What have we seen most recently? We have a case in point when we look to the Macquarie Point stadium process. Last night the Greens and Ms Johnston had a briefing about the proposed enabling legislation that the government has now chosen, and it is essentially abandoning the Project of State Significance process halfway through this process. The process was chosen by the government and now it is being abandoned by the government.
I think what that does is undermine the confidence of the community, the broader Tasmanian public and the broader Tasmanian community. We have an opportunity to do things well, but when we abandon those processes to get a model that suits the government of the day, then we abandon quite a lot of hope by the community who want to see a good process and a good outcome at the end of it. How can the public have any faith in a government that changes processes midway through when they do not like the answers being exposed throughout that process?
In the case before us, the amendment to sensitive disclosures, the set way of assessment and ensuring protection of important Aboriginal heritage is clearly set out with consultation with Aboriginal communities and Aboriginal Heritage Tasmania. Simple, clear steps – better with updates to the Aboriginal Heritage Act, and we have made that point. But there are clear and simple steps that add to this or corrects this legislation, if you like, in this particular case with the North East Wind project.
The government would do well to remember these steps in future legislation so that faith can be restored in their approach to important planning matters, such as the development assessment panels that will come before us yet again, such as enabling legislation for matters like Stony Rise or proposed enabling legislation where there is no social licence, eroding Tasmania’s legislative processes and, ultimately, the legitimacy of the government. It is important to make law with rigour, on advice from public servants.
The Greens also urge the government to ensure important updates to the Aboriginal Heritage Act.
We will support this bill, but I made those points because those things are important in our overall understanding and how we do planning in this state.
