Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1992 NO. 319

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

STATUTORY RULES 1992 No. 319

(Issued under the Authority of the Minister for the Arts, Sport, the Environment and Territories)

National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975

National Parks and Wildlife Regulations (Amendment)

The purpose of these regulations is to amend the National Parks and Wildlife Regulations (the Regulations), which are in force under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 (the Act). Subsection 69(1) of the Act provides that the GovernorGeneral may make regulations for and in relation to giving effect to an agreement specified in the Schedule to the Act, while subsection 71(1) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing all matters required or permitted by the Act to be prescribed or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.

The amendments to the Regulations serve several major purposes, including: to clarify, rationalise and strengthen where necessary the provisions that protect parks and reserves declared under the Act; to implement new legislative regimes for nature conservation in several External Territories; to provide legislative protection for marine reptiles and dugong in Commonwealth Waters; to implement a decision of the recent Consultative Meeting under the Japan-Australia Migratory Birds Agreement concerning the Australian birds that are classed as being in danger of extinction under the Convention; to upgrade penalties in line with current values, where appropriate; to improve the presentation of the Regulations; and to renumber each regulation to eliminate the complex numbering system that has evolved as the result of the various amendments made since 1977. Each of those topics is discussed briefly below.

Parks and Reserves: There are thirteen parks and reserves declared under the Act, comprising national parks, nature reserves, marine nature reserves, a marine park and two botanic gardens. They occupy areas of land and territorial sea, both in Australia and in the External Territories, and also areas of the Australian continental shelf. Some are readily accessible and experience a heavy visitation rate while others are situated in remote locations. The Regulations need to cater for the range of management issues presented by this diversity of parks and reserves.

The major features of the amendments made to the Regulations as they apply to parks and reserves are:

•       visitors required to stop at entrance stations established at certain parks so that fees can be collected and information about the park distributed;

•       regulation of the use of camping areas in certain parks to minimise conflict and share facilities equitably;

•       a new system to regulate fishing in place of the existing permit system;

•       power to impose a fire ban in a park or reserve;

•       control of activities involving disturbance of the soil, rock formations and river beds, such as fossicking for minerals;

•       reducing potential for conflict among park visitors by regulating large gatherings and the taking up of collections;

•       protecting historic sites and strengthening the protection of archaeological sites;

•       regulating the growing of plants in residential areas of a park (e.g. Jabiru township) to minimise the likelihood of invasive species encroaching on the park;

•       clarifying and strengthening provisions concerning damage to parks and reserves, dumping of rubbish, pollution, interference with wildlife (both animals and plants), and use or possession of weapons;

•       providing the power to protect public safety;

•       clarifying the controls over the use of vehicles, particularly in respect of off-road driving, parking, one way traffic, and hovercraft;

•       clarifying the controls over the use of boats and aircraft;

•       provision for a person to be allowed to enter a part of a park or reserve that is closed to the public, if that person is authorised by a permit or is accompanied by a park official;

•       strengthening enforcement provisions by:

-       restructuring the permit system,

-       providing penalties on a daily basis for certain offences relating to parking or mooring and for unauthorised construction works or clearance of vegetation,

-       reducing the period allowed for payment of park use fees to four days,

-       requiring written proof of identity from a person who is required to state his or her name and address, and

-       providing for on-the-spot fines to the extent that the Act allows.

External Territories: As the result of a wide-ranging review of the laws of certain External Territories, new legislative arrangements are being introduced. In the Territories of Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island and the Coral Sea Islands, those arrangements include the use of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 for nature conservation purposes. There are already two nature reserves and a national park declared under the Act in those Territories, which are therefore subject to the Regulations as they apply to parks and reserves. A complete legislative regime for nature conservation in those Territories requires provision of complementary protection for wildlife in areas outside parks and reserves. The amendments to the Regulations are designed to achieve that aim. In the Territory of Norfolk Island, two areas have been declared under the Act: the national park and the botanic garden. As the Norfolk Island Legislative Assembly has enacted legislation to protect those two areas, the Regulations do not need to be used for that purpose. For that reason, the amendments specify that the Regulations do not apply there.

Marine Reptiles and Dugong: The management of certain marine wildlife species (turtles and dugong) in Commonwealth Waters was formerly controlled under the Fisheries Act 1952. As part of a review of that legislation, it was agreed that those species should be protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975. Consequently, the Fisheries Management Act 1991 specifically precludes all marine reptiles and marine mammals from its jurisdiction, and protection for those species is now being achieved through these amendments to the National Parks and Wildlife Regulations.

Birds in Danger of Extinction: The 6th Consultative Meeting under the Japan-Australia Migratory Birds Agreement recently approved a revised list of Australian birds in danger of extinction which are subject to the Agreement. As the Regulations are the legislative mechanism for implementing the Agreement in Commonwealth Waters, the amendments to the Regulations revise Schedule 2 of the Regulations to accord with the revised list.

Penalties: As some of the penalties in the Regulations had remained unchanged since 1977, all penalties have been reviewed and the amendments provide for increases where appropriate to reflect current values.

Improved Presentation: The amendments improve the logical sequence of the Regulations by grouping together regulations dealing with related topics. For example, those covering use of aircraft, vessels, hovercraft and vehicles in parks and reserves are grouped together, as are the various provisions relating to non-indigenous animals and plants. Other improvements of a presentational nature include corrections to minor typographical errors, deletion of unnecessary words and addition of words for clarification.

Renumbering of the Regulations: As a result of the various amendments made to the Regulations since 1977, including the changes contained in these amendments, a complex numbering system has evolved, which includes alphanumeric labels as well as numbers. The amendments eliminate this problem by providing for the renumbering of every regulation in consecutive order.


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