When new water management plans are created, or existing plans updated, there are several important stages in the planning process.
These stages are a
legal requirement under Part 4 of the Water Management Act 1999.
These stages ensure that the process to create or update Water Management Plans is:
- Collaborative.
- transparent.
- Based on current science and evidence.
NRE Tasmania’s planning policy provides further information:
Guiding Principles for the development of statutory water management plans in Tasmania (PDF 1Mb)
Water management planning stages
There are six water management planning stages:
1
| Plan preparation:
NRE Tas publishes a Public Notice that the Secretary of the Department will prepared Draft Plan in consultation with key stakeholder representatives.
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2
| Pre-planning: In this stage NRE Tas: - Prepares background information about how well an existing Plan is working.
- Identifies key stakeholders who would like to be involved in a review.
- Collects feedback on matters that the stakeholders want considered in a review.
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3
| Preparing an updated Draft Water Management Plan: This stage involves: - Targeted consultation with key stakeholders.
- Setting water management objectives with input from all key stakeholders and interest groups and considering management approaches to best achieve those objectives.
- Scientific assessments are prepared for detailed understanding of the water resource and its management in the Plan area.
- Consulting with Aboriginal people on water related Aboriginal values and aspirations for water management outcomes.
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4
| Public consultation: In this stage the draft Plan is finalised and advertised publicly for a minimum of 60 days. During the 60 days the public can make representations on the Plan.
The head (Secretary) of NRE Tas then prepares a public report responding to all representations received from the public. The report is then sent to the Tasmanian Planning Commission.
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5
| Review by the Tasmanian Planning Commission (the Commission):
This stage starts when the Minister for Water directs the Commission to start their independent review.
The Commission’s review may include a public hearing.
When the review is complete, the Commission sends their report with recommendations to the Minister and publish their report on the Tasmanian Planning Commission website.
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6
| Adoption of the Plan: To adopt the amended plan the Minister reviews the:
- Draft Plan.
- Representations.
- Recommendations of NRE Tas and the commission.
The Minister then decides to adopt the draft Plan with or without amendments.
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