Tasmanian Bills Fact Sheets Tasmanian Bills Fact Sheets[Index] [Search] [Download] [Bill] [Help]
FACT SHEET
Natural Resource Management Amendment Bill 2018
The purpose of the Natural Resource Management Amendment Bill 2018 is to amend the Natural
Resource Management Act 2002. The proposed amendment will improve and strengthen
Tasmania’s natural resource management arrangements and ensure that our natural resources
are managed effectively and efficiently.
The most significant amendment in this Bill is to remove the roles and functions of the Tasmanian
Natural Resource Management Council from the Act, and instead create the capacity for the
Minister to form a special purpose committee, comprising issue-specific experts, on an as-needs
basis.
A minor amendment to the Act will remove the statutory requirement for accreditation criteria
for regional NRM strategies. The provisions for accreditation criteria are outdated and refer to
a national Ministerial Council that no longer exists. Removing the requirement for accreditation
criteria does not in any way alter the Government’s capacity to accredit draft regional strategies
in accordance with the Act.
The Bill extends the statutory timeframe for reviewing the Act from every seven to every ten
years. The Natural Resource Management (NRM) bodies have demonstrated a clear ability to
perform their roles and functions over the past 13 years, and as such, the legislation that governs
their operations need only be reviewed every ten years.
The Bill omits numerous references to ‘the Council’ and ‘regional committees’, and replaces the
latter with the term ‘relevant committees’.
The amendments contained in this Bill serve to streamline the natural resource management
process, and are in line with the Government’s policy to reduce administrative costs and red tape,
and decrease the number of boards and councils in the State.
Page 1 of 1