EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULES 1988 No. 79
NATIONAL PARKS AND WILDLIFE REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT)
(Issued under the authority of the Minister of State for the Arts, Sport, the Environment, Tourism and Territories)
Subsection 71(1) of the National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Act 1975 (the Act) provides as follows:
“71.(1) The Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with this Act, prescribing all matters required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed or necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act.”
Subsection 10(1A) of the Act as amended provides that “No operations for the recovery of minerals shall be carried on in Kakadu National Park”.
Subsection 3A(2) of the amended Act provides:
“(2) In this Act, “operations for the recovery of minerals” does not include:....
(b) the transportation of anything in the Kakadu National Park along routes (including air routes) prescribed for the purposes of this paragraph.”
Regulation 2AA of the National Parks and Wildlife Regulations prescribes a number of routes for the purposes of paragraph 3A(2)(b) of the Act.
The purpose of the Regulation is to facilitate, rather than restrict, freedom of movement. The Regulation allows the prescribed route to be used for the transport of anything in relation to operations for the recovery of minerals. It does not affect any any other transportation activity (e.g. for recreation or tourism purposes).
The purpose of the National Parks and Wildlife Regulations (Amendment) is generally to prescribe certain routes additional to those already prescribed to exclude their use from the prohibition on operations for the recovery of minerals in Kakadu National Park imposed by subsection 10(1A) of the Act.
Amendment was required in order that access by mining companies to areas outside the Park (i.e. the Kakadu Conservation Zone and the Jabiluka Project Area) not possible other than through the Park, may continue.
Regulation 2AA as amended now prescribes 5 additional routes for the purposes of subsection 3A(2)(b) of the Act (including air routes). The transport of anything along such routes therefore does not constitute “operations for the recovery of minerals” as prohibited by subsection 10(1A) of the Act. The Amendment also alters the description of a previously prescribed route to take into consideration the changed boundaries of Kakadu National Park following proclamation of Stage 3 of Kakadu National Park on 12 June 1987.