Overview

The Office of the Conservation Regulator (OCR) has recently been established in the Department of Environment, Land Water and Planning (DELWP) to bring together all of DELWP’s regulatory functions in one place. Led by Victoria’s first Chief Conservation Regulator, it will coordinate and oversee all DELWP’s direct regulatory responsibilities across more than 20 Acts of Parliament.

The OCR will work to ensure DELWP regulates the natural environment and conservation effectively to prevent the law being broken and to respond appropriately when it is.

This work ranges from use of public land, timber harvesting, wildlife, fire prevention and heritage.

Over the coming months we will provide a range of opportunities for you to get involved.

Stakeholder Reference Group

Expressions of interest to join our Stakeholder Reference Group have now closed. The Stakeholder Reference Group will support the Chief Conservation Regulator by providing regular feedback on the OCR’s regulatory activities in particular - supporting the establishment of the office. The Terms of Reference can be found here.

Timber Harvesting Statement of Regulatory Intent

Feedback has now closed on the draft Statement of Intent for Timber Harvesting, which describes what we regulate and what you can expect from us as a regulator – including the enforcement powers and tools that we may use.

We sought your feedback on our regulatory approach and how we prioritise our regulatory activity.

The Statement of Intent for Timber Harvesting and the survey below relate only to timber harvesting in state forests and how we regulate under the current law.

Survey

Our Regulatory Approach

1 – Very difficult 2 – Difficult 3 – Neutral 4 – Easy 5 – Very easy

Set Standards

  1. Rainforest field identification #
  2. Application of the precautionary principle #
  3. Identification and assessment of habitat features #
  4. Interpretation of landscape management prescriptions #
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Inform and Educate

Q5. What are the most useful ways for us to work with you?

Actions to Support Compliance

The actions we will take to support compliance with the law are:

  1. Engage with VicForests to provide advice to interpret standards and remedy any potential non-compliance
  2. Assess any proposed new or amended Timber Release Plan for compliance with the Allocation Order and advise VicForests on the outcomes of its assessment, requiring that any issues of non-compliance are rectified.
  3. Assess the Rolling Operations Plan for compliance with the Allocation Order and Timber Release Plan and advise VicForests of the outcomes of its assessment, requiring that any issues are rectified.
  4. Publish the outcomes of these assessments on its website.
Q7. How confident are you that taking these steps will support better compliance?
Confident
Unsure
Not confident
Level of confidence
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Monitoring Compliance

Q9. What are the three most important actions you think the OCR could do to better monitor compliance?
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Enforcing the Law

The OCR has limited regulatory tools available to it at this time. These are:

  • Notice of breach
  • Warning letters
  • Enforceable undertakings
  • Prosecution

Collaborate

Performance Measures and Reporting

Q14. Choose the top five most important performance standards?
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1 - not confident 2 - somewhat confident 3 - neutral 4 - confident 5 - very confident

Additional Information

About You

These questions are optional but help us understand who we have reached

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Are you Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander?

If yes, please tick the appropriate box

What is your interest in Timber Harvesting or the Office of the Conservation Regulator? (Tick all that apply)

The Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) is committed to protecting personal information provided by you in accordance with the principles of the Victorian privacy laws.

The personal contact information you provide will be used to engage with you for the purposesof the public consultation process only. Your contact details may also be used to provide feedback and updates about the consultation process.

For more information read DELWP's Information Privacy Policy at www.delwp.vic.gov.au/privacy.

DELWP may publish a copy of your submission or quote directly from your submission in the DELWP response to the feedback received or on the DELWP website or other Victorian Government website.

If you do not wish your submission to be published or to have content from your submission quoted in the DELWP response to consultation, please tick the box above (before the submit button). All submissions are public documents. Please do not include personally identifying information in the body of your submission.

The survey form is now closed. Thanks for your contributions.