❓ Mr. Tallentire questions the Minister for Lands about the renewal of pastoral leases, particularly regarding non-viable leases and diversification of land use. The Minister outlines the government's plan for lease rollover, streamlining diversification permits, and broader pastoral reform.
AnsweredQoN 248Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
PASTORAL LEASES — RENEWAL
248. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE to the
Minister for Lands:
I refer to recent comments by the Minister for Lands
regarding the pastoral leases that cover 35 per cent of the state, when he
said, ''I acknowledge and accept that the pastoral lease renewal process
has not been handled well.''
(1) After 30 June
2015, will the Minister for Lands be reissuing leases where government advice
is that the lease is not viable?
(2) Will the minister be seeking to allow the diversification
of land-use activities on pastoral leases?
(3) What
advice has the minister received on diversification of pastoral leases and the
future provisions of the commonwealth Native Title Act?
248. Mr C.J. TALLENTIRE to the
Minister for Lands:
I refer to recent comments by the Minister for Lands
regarding the pastoral leases that cover 35 per cent of the state, when he
said, ''I acknowledge and accept that the pastoral lease renewal process
has not been handled well.''
(1) After 30 June
2015, will the Minister for Lands be reissuing leases where government advice
is that the lease is not viable?
(2) Will the minister be seeking to allow the diversification
of land-use activities on pastoral leases?
(3) What
advice has the minister received on diversification of pastoral leases and the
future provisions of the commonwealth Native Title Act?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(3)
A number of issues are in play at the moment from this government and I want to
separate those out. The first and most critical is the rollover of pastoral
leases, which comes on at the end of June 2015. The Department of Lands is chartered
with the task of ensuring that happens. That is a deadline we need to meet and
we have to meet. That is the first point. We are working with pastoralists,
particularly with the good help and support of my parliamentary colleagues, Hon
Wendy Duncan, MLA, and the member for North West Central, to ensure that the
issues that pastoralists have are taken up in the rollover arrangements. They
will have two choices in that rollover. That is the first point. It is
fundamental that we get the rollover leases happening in 2015 in a timely way
so that they can put in place mortgages and all those things that need to be
part of rollover leases.
The second thing is that this
government is embarking on a process of pastoral reform. It is charged with the
task of seeing what it can do to facilitate third party investment into
pastoral areas to allow for diversification of pastoral leases and to
investigate the opportunities that sit around that. That is a very complicated
process because in a lot of cases any changes to that tenure system trigger
native title, quite rightly, and a range of issues come to bear as we head down
this path. W e are committed to
changing what has been in place for 100 years to allow some of the
opportunities that present in the northern part of Western Australia in
particular to come to the fore and allow some of that investment interest.
The member also talked about diversification permits. We have embarked upon trying to streamline the process for getting
diversification permits under the current legislative framework; that work is being done. As I understand it, it is not
perfect, but it is a better process.
Three things are happening: the
changeover of the leases in 2015; a much more streamlined process of getting
diversification permits to allow alternative options to happen on the
properties; and pastoral reform, which is a bit more complex. Papers that look
at a number of tenure choices have been put out to the public and they might be
choices that are put out to those pastoralists.
Mr C.J. Tallentire :
What about the non-viable leases?
Mr D.T. REDMAN : I
will let you ask that in a supplementary question.
A number of issues are in play at the moment from this government and I want to
separate those out. The first and most critical is the rollover of pastoral
leases, which comes on at the end of June 2015. The Department of Lands is chartered
with the task of ensuring that happens. That is a deadline we need to meet and
we have to meet. That is the first point. We are working with pastoralists,
particularly with the good help and support of my parliamentary colleagues, Hon
Wendy Duncan, MLA, and the member for North West Central, to ensure that the
issues that pastoralists have are taken up in the rollover arrangements. They
will have two choices in that rollover. That is the first point. It is
fundamental that we get the rollover leases happening in 2015 in a timely way
so that they can put in place mortgages and all those things that need to be
part of rollover leases.
The second thing is that this
government is embarking on a process of pastoral reform. It is charged with the
task of seeing what it can do to facilitate third party investment into
pastoral areas to allow for diversification of pastoral leases and to
investigate the opportunities that sit around that. That is a very complicated
process because in a lot of cases any changes to that tenure system trigger
native title, quite rightly, and a range of issues come to bear as we head down
this path. W e are committed to
changing what has been in place for 100 years to allow some of the
opportunities that present in the northern part of Western Australia in
particular to come to the fore and allow some of that investment interest.
The member also talked about diversification permits. We have embarked upon trying to streamline the process for getting
diversification permits under the current legislative framework; that work is being done. As I understand it, it is not
perfect, but it is a better process.
Three things are happening: the
changeover of the leases in 2015; a much more streamlined process of getting
diversification permits to allow alternative options to happen on the
properties; and pastoral reform, which is a bit more complex. Papers that look
at a number of tenure choices have been put out to the public and they might be
choices that are put out to those pastoralists.
Mr C.J. Tallentire :
What about the non-viable leases?
Mr D.T. REDMAN : I
will let you ask that in a supplementary question.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.