From the Secretariat (Issue 69)

Government Response to EDIC

DR ELIZABETH GIBSON, General Manager CMPA reports on the Governments response to the EDIC.

THE Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee (EDIC) is a Joint Investigatory Committee of the Parliament of Victoria. The Committee carries out investigations and reports to Parliament on matters associated with economic development, industrial affairs or infrastructure.

The committee was required to inquire on the benefits and drivers of Greenfields Mineral Exploration and Project Development in Victoria and the Committee was asked to consider possible barriers to Greenfields exploration and development, as well as project attraction in Victoria in the context of a globally competitive industry.

CMPA made submissions to the inquiry. The report for the Inquiry into Greenfields Mineral Exploration and Project Development in Victoria was tabled in Parliament on 22 May 2012. The Government took a year to respond to the EDIC recommendations and released its response on 27 May 2013.

A summary table containing EDIC recommendations relevant to our industry, the Government response and CMPA’s comments was distributed to voting members via email on 31 May 2013.

In summary, it appears that the Government is beginning to recognise the importance of the extractive industry through:

• Involvement by the Minister for Energy and Resources in Planning Scheme amendments.
• The current review of the Environment effects Statement process.
• Assess Victoria’s Planning framework in light of the National Multiple Land Use Framework.
• Utilise Department of State Development and Business Innovation as a referral authority for developments near existing quarries.

The Government is going to:

• Work with extractives industry to modernise Work Authorities.

This is a CMPA proposed solution; however, there is no mention of the terms of reference for this modernisation such as reduction in cost or time.

There is concern as to exactly who is going to co-fund the geosciences studies below.

• Co-funded geosciences studies to identify extractive resources.

A CMPA initiative is to have the importance of construction materials recognised.

• Establish a task force to identify current resources and future needs.

CMPA has been providing submissions to Regional Growth Plans.

• Incorporate Extractive Industry Interest Areas into Regional Growth Plans.
• Identify and implement the most effective mechanism to ensure appropriate planning protection for extractives.

An absolute necessity to be differentiated from mines is that there is no change in the following:

• The current notification process for extractives will continue.

The Government, evidently, has reviewed the rehabilitation bond system and will implement the following:

• Introduce a start-up bond scheme – this will allow for reduced bonds of up to 50% during the start-up phase of new mining and quarrying projects under certain conditions.
• Implement a cash bond system for individual bonds up to $10,000 will be introduced as an alternative to bank guarantees.
• Introduce a late bond lodgement penalty.

The CMPA strongly believes that further issues need to be addressed regarding the bond system (See article on CMPA meeting with Deputy Premier Peter Ryan in this issue).

• The Government will ensure that royalty charges on overburden material are proportionate to the value of the product by reviewing the royalty charges on overburden material for extractive developments.

The CMPA supports the review proposed.

• The Government will amend the MRSDA to include a statutory time frame of 30 days in which the DSDBI must respond to applications for the statutory endorsement of work plans or work plan variations. This will require the department to respond to such applications with an approval, refusal, or forward to the required referral authority, or request the applicant for a revision, within 30 days.

The construction material processors industry very rarely undertakes an Environmental Effects Statement. The following Government response was supplied:

• Clear objectives and transparent processes to increase certainty for all stakeholders.
• A suite of risk based environmental impact assessment options that can be applied to match the level of environmental risk arising from individual projects
• Coupling of the approvals processes with the environment impact assessment process

The following Government response corresponds to a CMPA recommendation that the Work Authority/Work Plan approval process be managed centrally.

• Establish Minerals Development Victoria from 1 July 2013 within DSDBI to be the single point of entry for investors and the link between investors and Victorian Government.

The CMPA will be active in seeing how these changes are implemented and whether they result in savings in time and costs to the industry.

REFORMS TO NATIVE VEGETATION LEGISLATION

In September 2012 a consultation paper was released to the public ‘Future directions for native vegetation in Victoria – Review of Victoria’s native vegetation permitted clearing regulations’. CMPA made a detailed submission on this paper. The reforms were released on 22 May 2013 and the Victorian Government is proceeding with their implementation.

There are four priority reforms:

• Clarify and amend the objective of the permitted clearing regulations
• Improve how the biodiversity value of native vegetation is defined and measured.
• Improve decision making and
• Ensure off sets provide appropriate compensation for the environment.

To support the implementation of the priority reforms, there are five supporting reforms to be implemented.

• Define state and local government regulatory and planning roles
• Better regulatory performance
• Improve offset market functionality
• New approaches to compliance and enforcement
• Continuous improvement program

Changes have been made to the Victorian Planning Provisions. Th is will include an incorporated document ‘Permitted clearing of native vegetation – Biodiversity assessment guidelines’ which will be incorporated into the VPP for commencement in September 2013.

Further information is available awww.depi.vic.gov.au/environmentand-wildlifebiodiversity/nativevegetation

An expanded article relevant to the industry will be written for the next issue of Sand & Stone (August/September 2013).

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