Native Vegetation – CMPA Position

The CMPA recently sent a native vegetation position paper to the incoming Ministry and Shadow Ministry to ensure that they are aware of our concerns. Following is the covering letter.

The Extractive Industry recognises a significant amount of Victoria’s native vegetation has been cleared because of the growth and economic development of the State. The Industry also understands that the remaining native vegetation is important for maintaining catchment health, and protecting flora and fauna habitats.

The government launched the Native Vegetation Management – A Framework for Action (NVMF) Policy in 2002 as a response to the continued, incremental loss of native vegetation.

There has been considerable concern about the NVMF policy by the Industry, which can be grouped under:

• Concern as to the independence, transparency and accountability of the current regulatory process,
• How the habitat-hectare is assessed at a particular site, and
• Concern about how the cost of offsets are balanced with the community.

Subsequently, a key sticking point is that the sites involved are very small compared with the localities in which they are situated with the result of this process appearing to be quite disproportionate to the actual impact on the environment. The NVMP has become a major weapon in planning permit applications.

The present system is unworkable and slowly strangling Industry, with entry restricted, exit plans implemented and future developments stalled. The process consumes excessive cash reserves from the businesses further hindering their ability to service their markets.

An economic, extractive industry resource is constrained by its geology and is fixed in space. It is a valuable and necessary resource to the State of Victoria. The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimated that the resident population of Victoria is 5.022 million (June 2005) and the DPI production figures for 2005 indicated 41.70 million tonnes of product. This suggests that just over 8 tonnes of materials was used by each Victorian in 2005.The cost of this is presently $12.43/tonne in Victoria where as other states pay up to $30/tonne.

Clearly, the development and use of extractive industry products is of importance to all Victorians, and as the population grows, the need for a continual and assured supply of reasonably priced extractive industry products contributes to the economic development of Victoria.

Consequently, there needs to be co-operation and an understanding between the stakeholders of the different resources at a specific site when evaluating the surface (e.g. native vegetation) and sub-surface (e.g. geological) resources.

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