The Reserve Activity Assessment (RAA) process used by Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service (PWS) is equivalent to an environmental impact assessment process.
PWS has adopted the RAA process to clearly identify proposals requiring assessment on land and waters managed by PWS including reserves subject to the National Parks and Reserves Management Act 2002 (NPRMA) or, in certain circumstances, the Crown Lands Act 1976.
The introduction of a single planning scheme for Tasmania in 2015 changed the way use and development decisions were made in relation to reserved land. In response to concerns about these changes, the Tasmanian Government announced in 2021 plans to amend the NPRMA to introduce a statutory environmental impact assessment process for eligible projects to increase transparency and independent decision-making.
A Consultation Paper on the proposed reforms was released for an eight-week public consultation. The consultation ended on 20 March 2024.
A total of 807 submissions were received from a wide range of stakeholders.
Based on feedback:
More reforms to the Reserve Actvitiy Assessment process are in development. These changes will improve transparency.
Changes to the NPRMA will not proceed. This means there will be no statutory Reserve Activity Assessment process for eligible proposals on reserved land.
The review of submissions revealed there was:
A lack of clear support across the submissions for a new statutory process in Tasmania on reserved land; and
Support for keeping the planning permit process under Land Use Planning and Approvals Act 1993 (LUPAA).
The submissions received and a Submissions Report is available to view on the Public Submissions webpage.
RAA Reform Project Achievements
Over the last four years significant work has been undertaken to improve the RAA process to meet the expectations of stakeholders and the community. These improvements have enhanced transparency and resulted in a more robust and consistent process:
- Opportunities for public consultation
- Public consultation of all Level 3 RAAs, for at least 28 days.
- Increased consistency and efficiency of decision making
- Consistent statewide process to manage the 200 RAA assessments each year.
- Training program for new and existing staff.
- Technical advice for PWS staff, management, and external stakeholders on all matters related to proposals on reserved land, and RAA processes including interaction with LUPAA and EPBCA assessments.
- Information tracking, and reporting on RAAs.
- Improved coordination with LUPAA and other planning and assessment processes
- A process for determining when or if consent may be provided to proponents to lodge planning applications under LUPAA.
- A process for delivering an effective PWS role in external EIA processes including EMPCA and EPBCA processes.
Next steps
We will continue to focus on increasing transparency and further improving:
Coordination between the RAA process and the planning permit process under LUPAA
Publication of RAA guidelines
Regular reporting of Level 2 and Level 3 RAA’s in progress
Additional public consultation at the scoping phase of Level 3 RAAs
Lease and Licence Portal
As part of the RAA Reform Process, all active leases and licenses over reserved land will be published. PWS issues leases and licences to individuals, community organisations and businesses for a range of activities on PWS managed land and there are currently over 1400 active lease and licence agreements on reserved land.
The Lease and Licence Portal was developed and designed by NRE Tas, launched in 2024 and over 1000 agreements are now available to view. There are number of older agreements that do not contain a disclosure clause, and consent is required to publish these agreements. The agreement holders have been notified and their agreements will be published once consent has been received.
The Portal supports the Tasmanian Government Transparency Agenda by streamlining the publication processes of active agreements that have been issued on reserve land. The Portal provides greater transparency with respect to property interests on reserved land.
See the Lease and Licence Portal.