Section 15 - Plantations and Reafforestation Act 1999 - Provisions relating to threatened species conservation

15Provisions relating to threatened species conservation

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15 Provisions relating to threatened species conservation

(1) This section applies if the Minister makes a determination that a species impact statement is required for the purposes of an application for authorisation under this Act. This section applies even if the plantation or proposed plantation the subject of the application is (but for that requirement) a complying plantation.

(2) The Minister is to make such a determination if the Minister is of the opinion that a species impact statement would be required to accompany the application if it were a development application under Part 4 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979 for the plantation or proposed plantation.

(3) The applicant for authorisation is required to provide the Minister with a relevant species impact statement.

(4) The Minister may not authorise the plantation or proposed plantation without the concurrence of—

(a) the Secretary of the Department of Planning and Environment, except in respect to a matter referred to in paragraph (b), or

(b) if the matter concerns critical habitat of fish or marine vegetation, or threatened species, populations or ecological communities of fish or marine vegetation, or their habitats—the Secretary.

(5) Despite subsection (4)—

(a) the Minister administering the Biodiversity Conservation Act 2016 may elect to act in the place of the Secretary of the Department of Planning and Environment for the purposes of that subsection, and

(b) the Minister administering the Fisheries Management Act 1994 may elect to act in the place of the Secretary for the purposes of that subsection.

If any such Minister so elects, that Minister must supply the Minister to whom the application for authorisation was made with any recommendations made by the Secretary of the Department of Planning and Environment or the Secretary with respect to the matter and with his or her reasons for not accepting any of those recommendations.

(6) In determining whether or not concurrence should be granted under subsection (4), the following matters must be taken into consideration—