Removal of Red Tape

DR ELIZABETH GIBSON, General Manager for CMPA reports on the meeting held with the Red Tape Commissioner.

A meeting was held with the Red Tape Commissioner at Kilmore with CMPA’s Ron Kerr and Dr Elizabeth Gibson in attendance.

THE FOLLOWING ISSUES WERE RAISED

The burden of regulation is leading to a sharp decline in new work authorities due to the costs of compliance being too high. No regulatory impact statement is undertaken of Local Government requirements, state government guidelines, practice notes etc. Each piece of new regulation has advantaged those with existing work authorities. The entry figure for a new work authority is ~$1 million.

There are fewer stone resources available which is leading to greater cartage distances which can be up to two times the cost of the material.

Removal of red tape for the Government occurred in the department (DPI at the time) by incorporating the extractive industry with mining. CMPA did not agree with this change due to it only advantaging the Regulator. Additionally, there has been difficulty in amalgamation of the legislation due to minerals being owned by the crown and stone being owned by the land owner.

In introducing new legislation, where a value is estimated for the cost of implementation to the stakeholder then, five years later, the cost has increased tenfold, the person responsible for that legislation should be held accountable. There is a lack of skill in policy development within Government. Additionally, local government does not have experience in work authorities.

Native vegetation legislation is unsustainable. It may be appropriate to have a central fund with which to undertake environmental works. Native vegetation is valued and so should the stone underneath.

Work Plans are similar and should not have to be continually rewritten. The work plan should be a separate document from the planning permit to allow for variations which, previously, were taking months and now are taking years.

Every time a work authority goes to VCAT the judge raises the bar through referring to conditions in previous cases and adding to them.

Rehabilitation bonds are restricting access to the market. The value of rehabilitation bonds required by government was $16 million in 2000 and now is $110 million in 2012. Construction materials should be assessed separately from minerals and only to the level of “safe and stable” as written in the MRSD Act. Only a negative formula is used to calculate bonds and no value is placed on the remaining land. They should be valued on terminal faces only.

It was suggested that each separate issue should be addressed by a one page briefing note. Elizabeth Gibson is to arrange a tour of quarries for John Lloyd to highlight the issues with Work Authorities and Rehabilitation Bonds.

John Lloyd was given the following documents “An Unsustainable Future”, 2009; CMPA submission to EDIC Inquiry “Greenfields mineral exploration and project development in Victoria”, 2011; and CMPA submission to the Productivity Commission draft report “Regulatory impact analysis benchmarking”, 2012.

John Lloyd has since put proposals to government on some of the matters discussed such as the rehabilitation bonds, the poor administration of native vegetation off sets and allowing off sets on public land.

QUARRY VISITS – TIME FRAME FOR A WORK AUTHORITY

As highlighted earlier, a visit to a quarry at Stonehaven (Geelong) was arranged with John Lloyd (Red Tape Commissioner), Mathew Hoare of Geelong Quarries Pty Ltd, along with Dr Elizabeth Gibson, CMPA. Th e aim of the visit was to highlight to John Lloyd the difficulties and the lengthy time frame that is required to obtain a new Work Authority.

The quarry is in its infancy having only received the Work Authority at the end of 2012 after a lengthy 13 year long process that included a number of site assessments and VCAT hearings along the way. Mr. Hoare said he had continued with the lengthy process due to the fact that he knew once the site was approved it would be of great benefit to the local region and provide approximately 20 direct and indirect jobs for the local area.

Mr Hoare said Geelong Quarries is now well placed to provide Quarry rock products to the Geelong region for many years with reserves of approximately 75 million tons of stone. Mr. Hoare said the site is currently under construction and is expected to be fully operational by December 2013 which will also include an onsite concrete batch plant for sales to the local area.

REHABILITATION BONDS

Discussions were held with John Lloyd at another quarry concerning rehabilitation bonds. John Lloyd commenced the meeting by saying that he had prepared two recommendations that he had submitted to the Minister; one concerned paying bonds by installment as work progresses on the quarry and the second was a recommendation that bonds are returned more rapidly once the rehabilitation work is complete.

CMPA has issues with the bond calculation in that it does not account for the difference in risk associated between:

• Crown land and privately owned land;
• Mining and the lower risk extractive industry.

Additionally, the calculation does not take into account the value of the remaining stone.

There have been some further developments with regards to rehabilitation bonds: DSDBI has formed a working group with industry representative (including CMPA) that looks to answer the following questions:

• What a more risk based management approach to rehabilitation bonds might look like?
• How such an approach might be implemented (e.g. a risk classification of sites)?
• How should good rehabilitation practice be rewarded and encouraged?

CMPA hopes to report developments on rehabilitation bonds with legal comments and a proposed way forward in the next issue of Sand & Stone. Also, for more on bonds, see article on ‘Rehabilitation Bonds – Still Broken’.

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