The Centre for Ecosystem Science (CES), UNSW Australia, supports all legislative and other instruments of government that improve effectiveness of biodiversity conservation, founded on a strong evidence base. Current rates of loss of biodiversity around the world, in Australia and in New South Wales are unprecedented. The continued loss of biodiversity in NSW indicates a clear need to assess the effectiveness of the legislative framework that governs biodiversity conservation. CES welcomes the opportunity to provide a submission to draft Biodiversity Conservation Bill 2016 and draft Local Land Services Amendment Bill 2016.
The proposed legislation has have strengths but there are major weaknesses that need to be improved before the legislation is suitably configured to arrest the unprecedented decline of biodiversity in NSW. Consequently, the Centre for Ecosystem Science, UNSW Australia cannot support the associated pieces of legislation in their current form.
This submission provides comments on seven key issues that require careful consideration by the NSW Government to develop effective legislation that halts the decline in biodiversity in NSW: Threatened species and ecological communities; Areas of Outstanding Biodiversity Value; protecting biodiversity loss before it becomes threatened; vegetation clearing; offsets; stewardship and biodiversity fund and cross cutting issues. For each, strengths and weaknesses are identified in relation to objects of the legislation, its framework and implementation, followed by improvements considered necessary for the legislation to meet its stated objectives. Specifically, there are improvements which could be made to the seven key issues, as well as rectifying some errors in the drafted legislation.
