WHEELS are in motion on Macquarie Street to finally overturn two decades of NSW’s unpopular native vegetation regime. The parliamentary process was kicked off on Tuesday, when Primary Industries, Lands and Water Minister Niall Blair notified parliament he would introduce legislation to repeal the Native Vegetation Act.
Deputy Premier and Nationals Leader Troy Grant said the repeal was a Coalition election commitment that delivers a win-win to farmers and the land.
“This landmark reform takes the shackles off framers so the can continue to put food on our tables while producing better biodiversity outcomes.”
Mr Blair told parliament on Wednesday the new laws would remove the cost burden biodiversity outcomes from landholders which they have borne since then Premier Bob Carr’s overnight introduction of State Environmental Planning Policy 46 in 1995, and work to reverse current biodiversity decline across the state. The Bill is expected to be enacted before parliament rises for the year on November 24.
Small wins in code changes
Both landholders and the environment have had modest victories in changes to the rules, or ‘codes’ in veg jargon, that govern clearing on private land since the draft laws were released in May.
In native vegetation legislation was tabled in parliament yesterday, unregulated land is still self-assessed and won’t need government certification to clear, only notification to Local Land Services that clearing will occur.
But caps on the rate and scale of clearing have been upped, from a maximum of 500 hectares over three years to 625ha over the same timeframe. This will be reviewed after the introductory period.
Primary Industries and Lands Minister Niall Blair told parliament this week that the new laws are expected to secure two to four hectares of land for biodiversity management for every hectare of land that is cleared.
Draft legislation listed codes to regulate clearing which would be most commonly applied to an average landholders’ plans – where clearing won’t alter the current land use. The codes replace the property vegetation plan (PVP) system and require landholders to draw up their own clearing regime for LLS to certify.
Codes have been streamlined to better reflect standard farm management practices. Notable developments include a continuing use code that considers rotational farming, as well as provisions for more flexible management of paddock trees. Rules are also in place to transition landholders with approval for clearing on regulated land under the old laws.
Clearing rate caps under the lower-end codes are up to 100 hectares within three years, or up to a maximum of 25 per cent of the total clearing permissible capped at 500 hectares. Biodiversity set-asides - a deal to quarantine and maintain native vegetation in exchange for permission to clear – kick in at the higher end of the codes.
The two most onerous codes cover clearing to alter the current land use – designed to regulate large-scale developments. This invokes a pay-to-play set-up, where landholders pay into a Biodiversity Conservation Trust, which would find an offset elsewhere in the state if none are available on the applicant’s land.
Fines for breaches are to be set down in regulations, to come into force when the new legislation takes effect.
Consultation kicks off in new year
MORE work will be done with landholders before new native legislation comes into effect.
While the necessary Bills are expected to pass parliament by the end of the year, government has said stakeholder consultation will kick off in the new year on detailed components of the regime, including mapping, codes governing clearing and the method of determining offsets for native veg removal.
The reforms are expected to pass parliament before the end of the year, and take hold across the state mid-2017.
These detailed reforms will apply to individual landholders. For more information visit landmanagement.nsw.gov.au
