The information sheet ‘Protecting People, Places and Property’, provided by DPIPWE as a part of this review, has a title that is misleading and disingenuous. It more properly should have been titled ‘Culling native wildlife to protect pasture and crops’. Given the relatively low level of actions taken to control wildlife through lethal means for protection of people and places, the brochure should have focused on the much bigger issue of culling for the protection of pasture and crops.

Thank you for the opportunity to make a submission in response to the ‘Review of Tasmania’s Local Government Legislative Framework Discussion Paper December 2018’ (Discussion Paper). In this submission, we refer to the entire review process as the Local Government Legislative Framework Review. The Local Government Act is referred to as the LGA.

The Tasmanian Conservation Trust (TCT) wishes to provide a late submission to the Legislative Council Select Committee – Firearms Law Reforms Inquiry.  The TCT is very concerned regarding the subject of the committee’s inquiry but we were unable to provide a submission by the advertised deadline due to numerous urgent and important deadlines. We hope that our submission can be taken into account.

The TCT strongly endorses the intent of the proposed amendments with the exception of those dealing with finfish farming

The Tasmanian Conservation Trust (TCT) wishes to provide an additional submission to the House of Assembly Select Committee on Firearms Legislation and Policy. The TCT made a submission to the previous Legislative Council Select Committee – Firearms Law Reforms Inquiry and I understand that the House of Assembly Select Committee has been provided with a copy of that submission.

The Draft Waste Action Plan is frustratingly incomplete and contradictory, containing a number of ground breaking commitments e.g. waste reduction and diversion targets, a container refund scheme and a statewide landfill levy while also missing many of the elements fundamental to an effective plan e.g. lacking over-all goals and objectives, failing to address roles and responsibilities, postponing decisions on governance structures, not making any specific commitments on infrastructure and omitting many policy and legislative reforms that industry and the community are demanding.

The Tasmanian Conservation Trust (TCT) welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the Draft Single-Use Plastics By-law.

The proposed amendments to do not include effective and comprehensive measures to address roaming cats, i.e. owned cats off their owner’s property and not under effective control.

The TCT is opposed to the development proposal on the Rosny Hill Nature Recreation Area, lodged by Hunter Developments, and asks the Clarence City Council to reject the proposed.

The long-spined sea urchin (Centrostephanus rodgersii) is on the verge of a population explosion that will see it cause lifeless ‘barrens’ in the biodiverse reef habitats across large areas of Tasmania’s east coast.

The Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) released a report in December 2018 that shows that the long-spined sea urchin has exploded in numbers and that an average of 15% of reef habitat has been lost in the 4-40 m depth range on the east coast from Tasman Island to Eddystone Point. The report shows that, in some parts of the north east coast, 50% of reefs have already been destroyed. In 2018 IMAS produced modelling that predicts that 32% of east coast reefs will be destroyed by 2021 and that with no action an average of 50% of east coast reefs may be lost to urchin barrens in the longer term.

Housing and Planning Minister Roger Jaensch’s defence of his government’s fast tracking of land at Huntingfield for housing is not convincing (“Rezoning will fast-track more housing where it’s needed”, Talking Point, July 29).

Tasmania’s housing crisis has been recognised for at least two years but frustratingly three big issues have not been part of the discussion. The state government has not committed to fixing the housing crisis and no one is asking them to; there is no mention of the main causes of the housing crisis and what this tells us about solutions; and no mention of the state government’s Affordable Housing Strategy 2015-25 which has remained unchanged while the housing crisis has unfolded.