Ms BADGER – Minister, for quite a few years now, people have been calling for the reserve activity assessment RAA process to be reformed into a statutory process. The government has recently walked away from reforming the RAAs. In your media release, you said that you plan to improve coordination between the non-statutory RAA process and the planning permit application under the statutory LUPAA process. Could you please talk us through what that means tangibly, what’s going to be changed to improve coordination, as you put it?
Mr DUIGAN – So, thank you, and I would reject the notion that we are walking away from forming RAA. I think we have made substantial improvements to RAA over time, and we are not taking a legislative path to the reform, but we are seeking to continue to improve the RAA to deliver reliable outcomes wherever it is used, and I would note that I think some 80 per cent of RAAs are lodged by Parks, or activities within Parks. In terms of what we’ve done, we went out for feedback in terms of engaging with stakeholders around what they would hope to see from the RAA reform process. In listening to that feedback, we won’t be introducing a new statutory process. The government remains committed to the ongoing reform; further transparency is an important part of that, and opportunities for public input into RAA processes.
I think the improvements we’ve made over the last four years have made it a more robust system. I would point to the release of the online leases and licensing portal, which puts up for everybody to see all the leases and licences on reserve land, that has been great for transparency. In terms of improving coordination between the RAA process and the planning permit process, which aims to further reduce duplication, improve consistency in decision‑making and providing clarity about the various LUPAA assessment pathways. Sophie, you’re probably in the best place to talk to that interface.
Ms MULLER – There were over 800 submissions through the consultation process and through that feedback we certainly learned the community’s value that they’ve placed on the role of LUPAA and councils, in particular, in terms of undertaking assessments. Over the last couple of years there’s been considerable effort to improve transparency, reporting and clarity around the RAA process, and in particular, the relationship with LUPAA. I think that was highlighted through the consultation, that there’s a need for ongoing clarity to ensure that there’s clarity around how the two systems operate together.
Ms BADGER – I’m just going to go back to the original question. I understand what’s happened in the past. Thank you for that recap for other members, though. What are you doing moving forward? You said in the media release that there was going to be improved coordination; what are those steps to improve coordination moving forward, or have they not been mapped out?
Ms MULLER – There’s still a body of work that we need to do to address some of the issues that have been raised through this process, including clarity around the two assessment processes and how they relate to each other.
