Overwhelming dissatisfaction with proposals for reform of Reserve Activity Assessment process
An overwhelming majority of submissions opposed the Tasmanian Government’s January 2024 proposal for a statutory Reserve Activity Assessment (RAA) process, the assessment process for developing reserved land, and management planning for that land. However, this is characterised as “some support for” the proposal in the Government’s summary report (released on 20 September) of the submissions made to the consultation process run earlier this year.
The 807 submissions comprised 79 individually written and 728 pro forma (including 250 with additional written comment), from a wide range of groups including state agencies, industry groups, environmental groups (including the TNPA) and individuals.
Not every submission has been published in full, and we have not had time to undertake our own analysis, but there seems to have been overwhelming dissatisfaction with the changes proposed in both the consultation paper and an “information sheet” released at the same time as the paper.
In addition to dissatisfaction with the Government’s key proposal for a statutory RAA process, there was support for retaining the current role of local government and access to the planning appeal process.
The large number of submissions and the overwhelming lack of support for the proposals seem to have given the Government pause for thought.
When the consultation process started, the Government expected draft legislation to be released for further consultation by late 2024. Now it is proposing that “submissions received will be used to inform a RAA Reform options paper taking feedback into account to determine next steps”. Concerningly, there is no indication that public comment will be invited on this options paper.
We call on the Government to commit to releasing the options paper for public comment.