Red Tape Reduction – Victorian Coalition Government announces 36 red tape reforms

Extracts from a media release from Minister of State Development Peter Ryan and Treasurer Michael O’ Brian.

ON Wednesday, 08 January 2014 acting Premier and Minister for State Development Peter Ryan along with Treasurer Michael O’Brien have announced 36 red tape reforms to boost productivity and reduce costs for Victorian businesses.

Mr Ryan said the reforms would benefit many sectors of Victoria’s economy as the Coalition Government strives to make the State an even more attractive place to live and do business.

Mr Ryan said the reforms were accepted following an extensive consultation period by Red Tape Commissioner John Lloyd. John Lloyd consulted with CMPA and visited sites that highlighted issues surrounding the work authority process and rehabilitation bonds. This was reported in Sand & Stone Issue 70, page 11, “Removal of red tape”.

“Mr Lloyd met with 25 different associations as well as a significant number of individual businesses, before putting his reform proposals forward,” Mr Ryan said.

Treasurer Michael O’Brien, who with Mr Ryan led the Government’s response to the Red Tape Commissioner’s reform proposals, said 22 reforms would be implemented in time to meet the Government’s 25 per cent red tape reduction target commitment of July 2014 with the other 15 to be introduced in the near future.

“The Coalition Government made a commitment to significantly reduce red tape by 25 per cent and we are on track to meet that target.”

“Cutting red tape encourages business investment in Victoria and the removal of these 22 unnecessary regulations will contribute to delivering more than $715 million in red tape savings to Victorian businesses and the wider economy.”

The following are the red tape reductions that are relevant to the extractive industry.

NATIVE VEGETATION OFFSETS

Current native vegetation offsetting rules are inflexible. This reform will establish new native vegetation offsetting rules and changes to the way the offset market functions making meeting offset obligations more straight forward and reducing delays.

CROWN LAND USED FOR VEGETATION REHABILITATION

Currently native vegetation offsets for private land clearing can be sourced only on private land. Offsets on crown land are extremely limited. This reform will facilitate native vegetation offsetting on public land making it cheaper and easier for businesses to meet their native vegetation offsetting obligations.

BONDS FOR LAND REHABILITATION BY INSTALLMENT

Current rehabilitation bond requirements for mining licence or extractive industry work authority holders are inflexible requiring 100% bonds upfront.

This reform will allow for reduced rehabilitation bonds of up to 50% during the start-up phase of new mining and quarrying projects, when the risk of default is low and additional liability to the Government is minimal. It will also institute a cash bond system for individual bonds up to $10,000 as an alternative to bank guarantees in appropriate circumstances reducing costs and barriers to entry in the mining and extractives sectors.

Note that this was also part of the government response to the Economic Development and Infrastructure Committee Inquiry into greenfields mineral exploration and project development in Victoria that was released in May 2013.

RETURN OF BONDS FOR LAND REHABILITATION

The current process for rehabilitation bond return in the mining and extractives sector is protracted. This reform will streamline the bond return process to Victorian mining/quarrying operators to ensure that bonds are returned as soon as possible following the successful conclusion of landowner consultation.

One red tape reform that applies across all industries and also may be of use is:

WORKSAFE FORMS

Currently OHS forms can be accessed from the WorkSafe website and completed online. However, data typed into many of the forms cannot be saved. Many forms therefore are lodged by post. Some forms do not readily print in browser operating systems such as Chrome. This reform will allow the forms to be lodged on line and the information entered into the forms to be saved.

Further information can be found at http://www.premier.vic.gov.au/media-centre/media-releases/8853-red-tape-reduced- victorian-coalition-government-announces-36-red-tape-reforms.html

You must be logged in to post a comment Login